Andrew Cuomo wants to do ‘precision policing’ too

In his latest public safety campaign proposals, Andrew Cuomo is pitching “precision policing” in addition to neighborhood beautification to discourage crime, his campaign told City & State. The former governor has appealed to a sense of disorder he says New Yorkers are feeling as he pursues a political comeback. Like Eric Adams and Bill de Blasio, he wants police to target “specific crime hotspots and the small percentage of offenders responsible for the majority of crimes.” He also wants to add more street lighting and security cameras while turning vacant lots into green spaces to create a sense of safety.

Precision policing is a vague term that describes an approach that former NYPD Commissioner Bill Bratton takes credit for implementing in New York City a decade ago. It’s a response to the 1990s tactic of “broken windows” policing – the no crime is too petty enforcement strategy that drove down crime, but resulted in stop and frisk and all its civil rights abuses. “By concentrating resources in a hyper-local, data-driven way, law enforcement can deter criminal activity without over-policing entire communities,” Cuomo’s press release states. Civil rights advocates counter that precision policing targets the same communities that were harmed by stop and frisk, just using a different name.

Cuomo’s not the first to tout the idea. “We pioneered precision policing,” de Blasio’s third NYPD Commissioner Dermot Shea declared in 2020. “We’ve driven arrests down in this city by concentrating on people that unfortunately are willing to carry a gun, pull it out, and use it, and we’ve done a number of takedowns.” Adams ran on precision policing in 2021. In 2022, the Adams administration insisted that a quality-of-life policing initiative, though it resembled broken windows policing, was in fact precision policing. In December, Adams and his erstwhile deputy mayor for public safety unveiled a “data-driven multi-agency initiative that focuses on blocks that have historically seen high levels of shooting incidents, crime, and quality-of-life issues.” In a statement touting January’s crime numbers, NYPD Commissioner Jessica Tisch said, “Through precision policing, particularly as it relates to gun violence, lives are being saved every day in New York.” Cuomo spokesperson Rich Azzopardi said the Cuomo campaign is proposing a “larger emphasis and expansion” of the policing strategy, and that they want to expand existing Neighborhood Safety Teams and Neighborhood Coordination Officers. Azzopardi said more details on the plan will follow.

Cuomo has released two other public safety proposals in recent days: a plan to regulate e-bikes and delivery apps and another to add 5,000 cops to the force and pay for them with money saved in overtime.

Fellow mayoral candidate Zellnor Myrie wants to hire 3,000 more officers. New York City Comptroller Brad Lander also wants to add more cops to the force and pay for them with overtime savings, and he has vowed to retain Tisch as police commissioner if elected. When asked Sunday if he would do the same, Cuomo said, “I think Commissioner Tisch is doing a very very good job, and I’ve been very impressed with her. I think most New Yorkers have.”

As Cuomo reveals his public safety policy plans bit by bit this week, Adams has been talking about public safety too. On Monday, Adams and Tisch touted 1,000 guns removed from the streets so far this year. Last week, they said the city in 2025 had seen record low gun violence numbers.