Mayor Zohran Mamdani stood beside NYPD Commissioner Jessica Tisch at their first joint press conference this week and was silent as she defended the department’s gang database.

Before becoming mayor, Mamdani was clear in his opposition to the database, calling it a “vast dragnet” that punished young New Yorkers of color with only loose connections to gang activity.

But on Tuesday, Mamdani didn’t say a word.

The moment underscored a growing question for the city’s new progressive mayor: Will he follow through on his campaign promise to dismantle the database or quietly let it stand?

Civil rights groups and their allies in the City Council are pressuring him to act. Critics have equated the database with racial profiling. But with a federal civil rights lawsuit underway over the database, and top police officials calling the tracker essential to public safety, Mamdani faces a high-stakes choice that could define his relationship with the NYPD and the city’s broader approach to crime and surveillance.

When asked about the tracker on Tuesday, Tisch defended it as critical.

"I have been very clear that the gang database is a tool that has helped us in terms of fighting gun violence," Tisch said.

While campaigning for mayor, Mamdani supported City Council legislation to abolish the database as a counterproductive measure that ensnares young people who may not be involved in criminal activity.

"Whether they go out late, photos they put on social media — so much of the facts of life of being a young New Yorker, and yet it then becomes a mark of suspicion," he said in September.

What is the gang database?

The NYPD's "Criminal Groups Database" contains information on thousands of people police believe are either gang members or associates.

According to the city's Department of Investigation, an estimated 10,000 officers have in-depth access to their profiles that include names, alleged gang affiliations, criminal justice histories and the criteria that led to their inclusion, such as locations associated with groups.

Ninety-eight percent of those listed are Black or Hispanic, and most are men between 18 and 34, according to a 2023 watchdog report, the last available review of the database. The audit said the database included 1,689 minors.

After programming errors were discovered during a DOI audit, the tracker shrank by nearly 40%, dropping from 13,989 people in June 2024 to 8,563 in October 2025.

Why is it controversial?

Critics say the database unfairly targets people of color based on factors unrelated to criminal activity, like the music they listen to or their social acquaintances. Civil rights advocates have argued that it’s used to surveil non-white New Yorkers without transparency or due process.

The NYPD says the database helps prevent shootings. But to Dana Rachlin — founder of We Build The Block, a community group focused on public safety through violence reduction and youth support — it’s a list of kids who need help.

Rachlin said police aren't equipped to address the root causes of gang violence.

"They did not go to school to be social workers," she said. "They cannot create an apartment or a detox bed. They cannot make a resumé or give a grief circle to a group of boys that just lost a friend. That's not their skillset. It's not their job."

What does the NYPD say?

Police have defended the database as "an invaluable intelligence tool" that helps solve major crimes and reduce shootings.

On Tuesday, Tisch credited the database for helping to take down some 70 gangs in 2025, including one in December that involved a 14-year-old attempting to kill a rival near a Queens school and one where three innocent bystanders were shot.

"When we have a shooting in the city, we use the gang database to anticipate where we may see retaliatory violence, and that has helped drive our gun violence down," she said.

During a City Council hearing in February 2025, NYPD Deputy Commissioner for Legal Matters Michael Gerber warned that eliminating the database would force officers to rely on informal methods of tracking gang membership.

"The result will be confusion, mistakes, and a much higher likelihood that individuals are incorrectly identified by officers as gang members in response to a gang-related shooting," Gerber said. "Deployments will be less precise, investigations will be slower, and the risk of unchecked retaliatory violence will be higher."

Gerber also testified that there were checks in place to make sure people added to the database were vetted by supervisors. But an October report from the Department of Investigation determined officers added names using "boilerplate language" without specific details justifying inclusion.

DOI said the NYPD improved its use of the database since its previous audit but noted a programming error kept more than 5,800 people listed in the database beyond the allowed timeframe.

During his testimony, Gerber said the NYPD implemented a new method of notifying parents when their children were added. By the time of the DOI report, police were still working to implement that policy.

Efforts to abolish the database

City Councilmember Althea Stevens from the Bronx has authored a bill to eliminate the tracker. She argued that the NYPD has other public safety tools and questioned the evidence police have cited to justify the database’s success.

She said the department should spend less time tracking people and more on education and counseling.

Still, Stevens acknowledged she may not have the votes to pass the bill.

A federal lawsuit is also pending. In April 2025, a coalition of advocates sued the city, arguing the database violates the First, Fourth and Fourteenth Amendments, as well as state and local laws.

Three anonymous plaintiffs — Black men who say they were wrongly labeled as gang members — allege they’ve been repeatedly stopped for minor infractions, like jaywalking or not wearing a seatbelt, then held for hours and interrogated about unrelated matters.

In a December ruling, a federal judge in Brooklyn allowed the case to proceed. He denied the plaintiffs' request to remain anonymous, ordering them to reveal their identities within seven days. He also declined to certify the case as a class action, but said they could renew the request after limited discovery.

The case remains ongoing.

What happens now?

Mamdani could direct the NYPD to stop using the database, modify its use, or settle the lawsuit.

Rachlin said she hopes he’s working behind the scenes, even if he stayed quiet Tuesday.

"In front of the world is not how we're supposed to create and draft policies and make big decisions," she said. "I don't think it's fair to expect him to have jumped in in that moment."

A spokesperson for Mamdani did not return a request for comment.