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Heavy police presence at Summer Streets marks latest NYPD surge under Mamdani
By
Elizabeth Kim
Published Aug 4, 2026
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Clarence Eckerson Jr.
By
Elizabeth Kim
Published Aug 4, 2026
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As he biked through Manhattan’s Summer Streets route last weekend, Clarence Eckerson Jr. witnessed something he’d never seen in his 18 years of attending the annual car-free event: gridlock, courtesy of the NYPD.
“There were some intersections that had eight police vehicles,” said Eckerson, who is the founder of Streetfilms, which documents public spaces all over the world. On Saturday, his footage showed cyclists and pedestrians weaving around police cars at major intersections along the route stretching from the Brooklyn Bridge to East 110th Street.
Although the NYPD has always staffed Summer Streets, Eckerson said far more officers had been deployed to this year’s event. “It was obvious to everybody that something had changed this year,” he said.
Eckerson has years of footage of giddy New Yorkers jogging and riding through carless thoroughfares, seeing the heart of the city from a new perspective. But Saturday felt different.
“I'd run into a few of my friends and people I know, and they're like, 'What is going on?'" the filmmaker said. “Everything's been slowed down.”
The show of force, which was first reported by Streetsblog, has become a signature of NYPD Commissioner Jessica Tisch and Mayor Zohran Mamdani. At parades, street festivals and Knicks watch parties, the NYPD is flooding the zone with officers in unprecedented numbers.
Another Summer Streets event in Manhattan is set for this Saturday.
“Once it becomes accepted practice that any public gathering requires a massive deployment of force, it's hard to really know what public gatherings then shouldn't require massive deployment of force,“ said Elizabeth Glazer, founder of the public policy think tank Vital City and a former criminal justice adviser to former Mayor Bill de Blasio.
In June, the NYPD’s security measures for a Knicks watch party that included multiple street closures prompted Madison Square Garden officials to accuse city officials of turning the area around the arena into a “police state.” Prior to that, City Councilmember Justin Sanchez of the Bronx expressed alarm at images of police in riot gear and accused them of using a “militaristic approach.”
The NYPD rolled out similar street closures at the Garden for Taylor Swift’s wedding on July 3. The move prompted criticism from business owners who complained of once again losing customer foot traffic.
Public safety experts say such large deployments come with social and financial costs.
Although some New Yorkers welcome increased police presence, officers spending more hours at public events means fewer hours spent at precincts answering 911 calls and preventing other crimes, Glazer said.
Mamdani has argued for alternative ways of addressing public safety that would allow police officers to focus on solving crimes. He has celebrated spontaneous celebrations of Knicks fans as classic “only in New York” moments.
But during the Knicks' championship run, Tisch took a tougher approach. She shut down the area around Madison Square Garden. The NYPD implemented similar “frozen zones” in Lower Manhattan for the team’s ticker-tape parade and limited the number of spectators. An unprecedented 10,000 officers were deployed to the celebration.
Brad Weekes, a police spokesperson, said the security measures at Summer Streets came in response to terrorists driving into large crowds in other parts of the world. “Just last week, a man used a car to drive into a large Pride celebration in Berlin, leaving one person dead and injuring dozens of others,” he said. “This was an operational decision intended to ensure that people could enjoy Summer Streets safely.”
He said the NYPD’s policy toward recent public events reflects recent terror attacks, including a failed bombing attempt this past spring near Gracie Mansion. The department, which has officers stationed around the world, has also been on heightened alert since the start of the United States’ war in Iran.
But Glazer wondered if Tisch’s approach is in response to specific threats related to the events, or rather a gradual ramp-up of security.
Attendees noted police used vehicles to create choke points throughout the Summer Streets route.
Zhang Fengguo/Xinhua via Getty Images
“If the judgment is that the only way that civic gatherings can happen peacefully is with a huge police presence, that diminishes what cities are all about and why people go out and gather,” Glazer said.
Jeffrey Fagan, a policing scholar and law professor at Columbia University, called the increased NYPD deployment “an inefficient use of police resources that will create tensions and resentment toward the police, raising the risks of alienation if not anger in the community.”
Asked about the issue on Monday, Mamdani said he was unaware of the controversy but added “We want to ensure that New Yorkers are safe in all of these moments and we also want to ensure that New Yorkers can enjoy themselves and celebrate.”
Jon Orcutt, a former city transit official who helped start Summer Streets in 2008, said NYPD officials from the outset insisted on heavily staffing Summer Streets, a decision that resulted in the event ending at 1 p.m. “It became a real cost burden to the event,” he said.
In 2024, then-Mayor Eric Adams extended the hours for Summer Streets from 7 a.m. to 3 p.m.
For Orcutt, the NYPD’s handling of public gatherings is a symptom of a bigger problem that predates Mamdani.
“Maybe they should get the cars out of the bike lane once and for all, so we can actually have safe cycling in the city,” he said. “But instead, they're packing these public events that don't need all this policing.”
Tagged
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manhattan
public safety
Elizabeth Kim
Elizabeth Kim is a reporter on the People and Power desk who covers mayoral power. She previously covered the pandemic, housing, redevelopment and public spaces. A native of Queens, she speaks fluent Mandarin. Got a tip? Email [email protected]
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