Mayor Zohran Mamdani ordered the NYPD’s first use-of-force review in a decade on Monday, days after an officer in a fatal Queens shooting retired before facing his disciplinary trial.
The case behind the move is Win Rozario. The 19-year-old was in a mental health crisis at his family’s Ozone Park home in March 2024 when his family called 911 for help. Officers Matthew Cianfrocco and Salvatore Alongi shot him after he charged at them with a pair of scissors while his mother and brother begged them not to shoot. Attorney General Letitia James declined to bring criminal charges last December, but both officers still faced department discipline.
“When the government uses force against a New Yorker, the standard for accountability must be at its highest. Every New Yorker deserves to know that force will be used lawfully, carefully and only when necessary.”
Mayor Zohran Mamdani
Then, on Thursday, the department let Alongi retire before his trial, and the Rozario family found out after the fact. Commissioner Jessica Tisch admitted the NYPD failed to notify the Civilian Complaint Review Board about the retirement, which the rules require, and she apologized for it.
Mamdani’s package goes further than the review. The city is adding $2.6 million for independent police oversight, building a system that flags retirement applications from officers with discipline cases still open, and referring officers who retire with charges pending to the state for possible decertification, so they cannot just quit and get hired by another department.
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