Broken windows under Mamdani? Frustration mounts with mayor's policing policies.

A surge of police officers into neighborhoods of color with high crime. A spike in subway arrests and summonses. Courts so backlogged that officials had to temporarily reopen an emergency overnight shift. And at least three people who died in NYPD custody after being arrested for low-level offenses.

Public defenders and police reform advocates say Mayor Zohran Mamdani’s first five months in office have featured alarming examples of “broken windows” policing, despite his promise to bring a new approach to public safety.

The mounting frustration among some criminal justice reform advocates and people who voted for Mamdani could come to a head this summer as NYPD Commissioner Jessica Tisch plans to “flood the zone” this summer with up to 3,800 officers in high-crime areas, including public housing complexes and subway stations. The boosted police presence comes as the city enters the global spotlight for the World Cup.

Supporters of broken windows policing say that enforcement of low-level offenses, often described as quality of life crimes, deters more serious crime and makes people feel safer. Opponents say that broken windows disproportionately affect communities of color, breeds distrust of police and causes some New Yorkers lasting harm.

Muhammed Aly, a 25-year-old who lives in Brooklyn Heights, said he had hoped the city would reduce policing in places like the subway.

“I think for a lot of people, they were expecting Mamdani to put more effort into community response instead of adding more officers on the street,” Aly said.

Sam Raskin, a spokesperson for the mayor, disputed the notion that Mamdani campaigned on a promise to reduce policing of low-level offenses.

“The mayor has been clear that his public safety vision has always been about reducing violence while also building a system where police officers are no longer asked to serve as the city’s primary response to mental health crises and other failures of the social safety net,” Raskin said in a statement. “The Mamdani administration’s approach to public safety has worked and New York City is experiencing historic low shootings, murders, robberies and other major crimes.”

Tisch has repeatedly said the city is not using broken windows policing. An NYPD spokesperson responded by explaining that Tisch has led on a data-driven, precision-policing strategy that delivered record-low shooting numbers last year and remains on pace this year.

The mayor recently touted Tisch’s plan for the upcoming summer, linking it to a drop in violent crime.

“We will build on that progress not by surrendering our momentum, but by pursuing the proven solutions that we know to work,” he said during a press conference to announce nearly 200 additional officers in the Bronx.

The mayor was joined by Tisch, Gov. Kathy Hochul and Black elected leaders who praised the administration for sending additional resources to a borough that has consistently had the highest violent crime rates.

But critics say the summer surge is another example of a continuation of previous Mayor Eric Adams’ approach to policing. Adams, a former police officer, sought to crack down on quality of life crimes and spoke about the need for police “omnipresence” in the subways.

Criminal summonses jumped 29% in the first three months of 2026 compared to the same period last year under Adams, including minor quality of life infractions like public drinking, smoking in train stations, and running red lights, according to NYPD data.

An analysis by the policy journal Vital City shows that summonses for breaking the subway’s rules of conduct other than fare evasion nearly doubled — from 19,084 to 37,979 — during the first four months of this year compared to the same period last year. The rules prohibit smoking, drinking alcohol, panhandling, littering, playing music and lying down across seats.

Mamdani “rhetorically championed a new approach to public safety that was about reducing criminalization,” said Yul-san Liem, a deputy director of the Justice Committee, a group that represents families whose relatives have been killed by police officers.

“Unfortunately, we haven't seen that materialize in his first 100-plus days,” Liem added.

In January, when pressed about the NYPD’s enforcement of low-level offenses, Mamdani told a Daily News reporter, “We’re not returning to broken windows policing.”

Criminal justice advocates like Liem argue that crackdowns on low-level offenses lead to a revolving door of arrests by failing to address the root causes like mental illness, homelessness and substance abuse.

“We can't punish our way to safety,” said Philip Desgranges, an attorney in the Legal Aid Society’s Criminal Law Reform Unit. “I think that ultimately is the underlying lesson that should have been learned, but this current NYPD administration is repeating those same mistakes.”

“To this day we have not yet seen this administration act on its promises,” he added.

Legal Aid was among the groups who recently criticized the NYPD for arresting Samantha Randazzo for a low-level drug charge when she was nine months pregnant. Advocates said her alleged crime could have been resolved with a desk appearance ticket. Randazzo wound up giving birth in a Brooklyn criminal courtroom. Police said she had an outstanding arrest warrant from 2023 for allegedly stealing from a fish store owned by her family.

Desgranges said the episode reveals the urgent need for police to take a backseat to social workers, mental health professionals, and substance abuse experts, the very kind of approach he said Mamdani campaigned on.

“Evidence and outcomes, they have to be the north star of our administration and frankly, of any administration,” Mamdani said at a mayoral forum during the campaign.

Inspired by a program in Philadelphia, Mamdani said he wanted to hire 100 outreach workers who would work in the busiest subway stations. Those workers would allow police officers to “actually focus on serious crimes,” Mamdani said.

As a candidate, Mamdani pledged to create a department of community safety, which would realize his promise of reducing police involvement in mental health emergencies. After coming into City Hall, Mamdani scaled back that effort, turning it into an office rather than an agency and reducing its budget from over $1 billion to $300 million according to his latest budget proposal. The mayor has called the office a “first step.”

“The promise of the creation of a department of community safety was openness to thinking about the many many things, beyond the police, that can make us safe,” said Elizabeth Glazer, a former criminal justice adviser to former Mayor Bill de Blasio who now runs the policy journal Vital City. “Recent surges in summonses and in hugely increased summer police presence shows how hard it is to deliver.”

Gothamist recently reported on state court data showing the number of New Yorkers arrested for lying down or taking up more than one seat on the subway went up 3,000% last year compared to 2024. The trend has continued so far this year under Mamdani.

Left-leaning mayors are often sensitive to appearing soft on crime, said Christina Greer, a political science professor at Fordham University. As Mamdani embraces “pothole politics” focused on visible improvements in day-to-day life, she said, he faces pressure to stem disorder.

“You don't feel good about your city if you're seeing people smoking weed on the subway,” Greer said, adding, “But that doesn't necessarily mean that it should translate into arrest, because we know that only certain communities are targeted for arrest.”

Sugey Verdeza, a 26-year-old Bed-Stuy resident, said she feels safer at night when police are present. But she acknowledged that there were some instances where officers appeared to be targeting minorities.

“There’s some type of risk that you know the community faces,” she said. “As long as they do their job and what they have to do, which is just keep the community safe, then I don't feel like it should be an issue.”

Charles Lane contributed reporting.