The inaugural celebration for Mayor‑elect Zohran Mamdani is set to be a major logistical undertaking for New York City Police, according to several law‑enforcement sources. The event, dubbed the “Inauguration for a New Era Block Party,” will take place on January 1st along a seven‑block stretch from Liberty Street to Murray Street—a route that regularly hosts ticker‑tape parades. Police officials say a detail of roughly 350 to 400 officers will be dispatched to guard the proceedings.
A veteran officer with more than a quarter‑of‑a‑century on the job explained that the operation will be expensive, “It’s going to cost a lot of money in overtime.” He added, “He’s having this celebration with all these people who hate the police and we have to be there to protect them.” With overtime pay hovering around $100 per hour for many patrol officers, and higher rates for detectives, lieutenants, and chiefs, the total cost could climb to close to half a million dollars.
Police sources noted an irony in Mamdani’s plans: on one hand, the mayor has pledged to tighten the city’s budget and has been vocal about defunding the NYPD; on the other, he is using taxpayer‑funded law‑enforcement resources for a high‑profile party. “It’s ironic that he wants to spend all this money using city services while saying he wants to cut the budget of the NYPD,” one source told the Post. “I think it goes to show how naive he is.”
Mamdani’s history with the police force adds extra weight to the story. During the 2020 Black Lives Matter protests he referred to officers as “racist” and “anti‑queer,” branded the NYPD “wicked and corrupt,” and called for its defunding. While he moderated some of those statements during his mayoral campaign, he did keep a left‑leaning political strategist—Elena Leopold, an executive director of an all‑female transition team and a member of a 2020 “open letter” group demanding radical criminal‑justice reforms—to lead his transition effort.
The mayor has also announced that no new officers will be hired, a move that will strain a department already operating with about 33,000 to 34,000 personnel, far below the 40,000+ peak in 2000. Because the party will require a large security presence, many officers who normally patrol or investigate will be pulled off their usual duties. “I don’t think he’s aware of where the police department is in terms of staffing levels,” one source said. “They’ll take detectives away from the important work they’re doing to work this event.”
Special attention was paid to the city’s already heavy workload on New Year’s Eve, when the NYPD will be deploying thousands of officers for the ball‑drop celebration. A longtime officer reminded that “That many cops on New Year’s Day is a huge hit because you already have a detail of thousands working the ball drop, and the precincts are all up‑staffed on that night because it’s a very busy night.”
Given the strain, a retired sergeant suggested the mayor consider other resources. “Why didn’t you staff it with social workers and violence interrupters?” the retired officer asked, referencing the mayor’s plan to use social workers for some emergency responses. “It’s bad optics from the average person’s point of view,” the source added. “He’s coming in and he’s the man of the people but the first thing he does is throw himself a party.”
The sergeant also wondered whether the NYPD’s Strategic Response Group—an elite unit that has drawn criticism after shutting down anti‑Israel demonstrations at Columbia University—might be called in. “I’m sure it’s going to be expensive,” he said. “What will be interesting is if the NYPD’s SRG unit will be working it because we know he has targeted that unit for dismissal.”
Meanwhile, the city’s Sanitation Department announced that it would deploy about 50 workers to handle cleanup after the celebration. The department’s spokesman, Joshua Goodman, stated that the additional personnel are part of a pre‑budgeted service and are not a “taxpayer expense.” Neither the NYPD nor Mamdani’s transition team had responded to inquiries about exact cost figures.
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