Overview
- Brooklyn College professor Alex Vitale, author of The End of Policing, was selected to advise the mayor-elect’s transition committee on community safety.
- Vitale’s 2017 book argues the core problem is the expanded role of policing and critiques tactics such as so‑called broken windows strategies.
- Vitale announced on X that he was asked to join the transition team to work on community safety issues.
- The choice drew swift online criticism and renewed scrutiny of Mamdani’s past calls to defund or dismantle police despite his campaign pledges and decision to retain NYPD Commissioner Jessica Tisch.
- The transition team and Vitale did not provide on‑the‑record comment to reporters, and coverage from the Washington Free Beacon attributes to Vitale calls to abolish prisons and several federal enforcement agencies.