Law enforcement unions back Adams for mayor, alarmed over the prospect of a Mamdani win

Josephine Stratman and Chris Sommerfeldt, New York Daily News on Jul 17, 2025

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NEW YORK — New York City Mayor Eric Adams on Thursday formally received support for his reelection bid from several unions representing employees of the police and correction departments unions, who expressed concern a City Hall led by Democratic nominee Zohran Mamdani would be a “de Blasio 2.0.”

Union heads from the 13 organizations who backed the mayor cited the mayor’s support in contract negotiations and in securing their members pay bumps.

Benny Boscio, president of the New York City Correction Officers’ Benevolent Association, one of the unions that endorsed Adams, said he supports the mayor because the city “can’t afford to have de Blasio 2.0 back in City Hall,” a reference to ex-Mayor Bill de Blasio, who often feuded with the city’s law enforcement unions.

“My members know all too well what it’s like to have a mayor who purposely defunds them, scapegoats them, and puts their lives in jeopardy,” Boscio said. “That was exactly what we endured over the years under the de Blasio administration.”

Mamdani, the Democratic mayoral nominee who’s polling as the favorite to win November’s election, has signaled his City Hall would take cues from de Blasio, and he has said he’s talked to Steve Banks, the ex-mayor’s social services commissioner, and Amit Singh Bagga and Maria Torres-Springer, who also held roles in the de Blasio administration.

Mamdani also said he would consider keeping current Police Commissioner Jessica Tisch.

“We have come too far to go backwards,” Adams, who’s running as an independent in November’s contest, said, slamming Mamdani’s plans to close Rikers Island and have mental health professionals and social workers respond to domestic violence incidents.

The formal endorsements, which were reported earlier this week, came a day after Adams’ former interim New York Police Department commissioner, Tom Donlon, alleged in a bombshell lawsuit that the mayor and top department officials promoted unqualified friends to prestigious posts and punished those who spoke out against the practice.

Those allegations followed lawsuits filed last week against the mayor by four ex-NYPD chiefs who alleged a similar pattern of cronyism and corruption.

In his remarks, Adams, a former NYPD captain, touted his record on crime, including increases in subway ridership and drops in homicides, and how he secured contracts for law enforcement unions.

“We will ensure that they always have the resources they need,” the mayor said of police officers. “Don’t tell me about law enforcement overtime, tell me about how we brought down crime.” Under Adams, overtime costs have mushroomed.

In attendance at Thursday’s rally were the Detectives’ Endowment Association, Sergeants Benevolent Association, Captains Endowment Association, Lieutenants Benevolent Association and Correction Officers Benevolent Association, along with other law enforcement unions, including some from Long Island and other parts of the state.

The Police Benevolent Association, the city’s largest police union, has yet to announce which candidate it is backing.

The heads of several of the unions endorsing Adams’ reelection bid shrugged off the string of lawsuits alleging that the mayor and his allies have run the NYPD as a “corrupt enterprise.”

“I don’t really know enough about (the suits), I can just go on Eric Adams’ record and what he’s done for crime in the city and what he’s done for correction officers and my members,” Boscio said of the suits after the news conference.

Scott Munro, president of the Detectives’ Endowment Association, one of the NYPD unions that endorsed Adams’ independent campaign, said the lawsuits against Adams and his top NYPD advisers aren’t important to his members, arguing the mayor has his group’s support because he “believes in the police.”

The mayor called the NYPD lawsuits against him “baseless” as he left the event to go back into City Hall.

“Adams has been good to them on contracts, they know all this, but they are looking at Adams, and they got good contracts from him,” Donlon told The News when asked of the new endorsements.

(Graham Rayman contributed to this report.)