Mamdani-appointed NYC professor wrote book on | Political News

Alex Vitale, writer of “The End of Policing,” has just been appointed to Zohran Mamdani’s transition crew for group issues of safety.

Over the past few weeks, Mayor-elect Mamdani has been unveiling members of his transition crew forward of his 2026 New York City administration. Among his 17 transition committees comprising of over 400 workers members is Alex Vitale, a professor of sociology at Brooklyn College and police reform advocate.

“I’m excited to announce that I have been asked to join the Mamdani Transition Team to work on community safety issues. A New Era for NYC,” Alex Vitale posted to X last week.

Vitale, who also serves as the Coordinator of the Policing and Social Justice Project at Brooklyn College, has spent the last 30 years of his profession writing about policing and consulting with law enforcement entities and worldwide human rights organizations.

“Racism in policing is structural, not simply a product of bad attitudes,” Vitale says in the 2017 book. “Training officers to recognize implicit bias without changing what they are tasked with enforcing is like teaching a soldier to be sensitive while sending him to occupy a foreign country.”

Skeptics, like Rep. Elise Stefanik, R-N.Y., have expressed doubt about having the writer of “The End of Policing” aboard the crew. Stefanik told Fox News Digital, “Kathy Hochul must condemn Zohran Mamdani’s appointment of Alex Vitale to his transition advisory committee. Vitale is a radical police abolitionist who will destroy New York if he gets his way.” However, Mamdani has assured his constituents that the city’s current police commissioner, Jessica Tisch, will remain on the job.

However, Mamdani, while a supporter of police reform himself, has said on national television, “I’m looking to work with these officers. And I know that these officers, these men and women who serve in the NYPD, they put their lives on the line every single day.”

In the same October interview with Fox News’ Martha MacCallum, Mamdani explained his hopes for reform, saying, “Five, six years ago, the response time for officers was closer to 10 minutes. Now it’s closer to 16 minutes.” He blamed that increase on cops being deployed to mental health calls. “New York deserves a police department that is asked to do the things that it can possibly do, not one that covers the failures of every break in the social safety net.” This is where his proposed Department of Community Safety would come into play.

Elle Bisgaard-Church, Mamdani’s Chief of Staff, is slated to serve as the “chief architect” of the Department of Community Safety, which goals to ship specifically educated social employees to reply to sure non-violent 911 calls and mental health crises in town. 

“We will build an administration defined by competence, boldness, and an unshakable commitment to a more affordable, livable city for working people,” the Mayor-Elect said on Instagram.