CURB Act seeks to regulate NYPD protest policing

Momentum is building behind a city council bill that would ban police from using certain crowd control tactics on protesters. It would also prohibit deployment of the New York City Police Department’s Strategic Response Group, the rapid-response unit for counterterrorism and protest policing.

The Communities United to Reject Brutality Act, or CURB Act, had 26 cosponsors by press time. Mayor Zohran Mamdani, who pledged on the campaign trail to disband the SRG, said at an unrelated news conference Oct. 28 that he supports “the spirit of” the CURB Act, and the administration has been “having conversations around specific language.”

Mamdani also said he continues to support “decoupling our city’s response from terrorism threats from its response to First Amendment activity,” and that it is a subject of “internal conversation.”

Council member Eric Dinowitz has not signed the bill, and his office declined to comment on the matter. Marble Hill Council member Carmen De La Rosa and Kingsbridge Heights Council member Pierina Sanchez are both cosponsors of the bill. The city council’s progressive caucus, of which De La Rosa and Sanchez are both members, recently added the CURB Act to its legislative priorities list.

The New York Civil Liberties Union, a leading advocate for the bill, told The Press the protest that escalated outside Allen Hospital Oct. 8, where Oscar Belgal was being treated after he was shot by federal immigration agents in Marble Hill, demonstrates police conduct that the bill aims to target. Protesters and officers clashed at the protest, and officers could be seen pushing back the crowd of demonstrators.

SRG officers did not respond to ICE protests that day, according to Mamdani and the NYPD.

Authorities said demonstrators became agitated, pushed over barriers into the roadway, obstructed vehicular traffic and repeatedly refused verbal commands to disperse. Police took five people into custody and issued them desk appearance tickets for offenses including disorderly conduct, resisting arrest, harassment and obstruction of governmental administration, according to police.

Isabelle Levya, the civil liber

-ties union’s organizing campaign strategist, said in spite of the SRG not being present at that particular protest, the CURB Act is aimed at police tactics across the board. If the SRG is prohibited from responding, advocates want to ensure a similar unit can’t be created in its place, she said.

The CURB Act also aims to prohibit kettling — when police physically surround protesters to confine them to a space — as well as using bicycles, tear gas and pepper spray against protesters. It would also ban the use of any long-range acoustic device, known as a sound cannon, over 90 decibels against protesters.

The CURB Act would also require the NYPD to submit detailed reports of protest responses to city officials and post them online.

“The NYPD is very capable of policing protests without [the SRG],” Levya said. “The SRG is only escalatory and does not actually make people safe at protests.”

Brooklyn Council member Chi Ossé is championing the bill. He and advocates called on Bronx Council member Oswald Feliz, who is chair of the city council’s public safety committee, to hold a hearing on the CURB Act so it can move forward. Ossé accused Feliz via X of “blocking” the bill Oct. 13. Feliz responded by saying Ossé was being performative, and accused him of not “doing basic legislative work that can move the bill.”

Neither council member responded to requests for comment by press time.

The SRG was established in 2015 as part of the NYPD’s Special Operations Bureau and has received consistent criticism in the years since.

In 2020, Human Rights Watch released a report condemning the SRG’s response to a peaceful protest in Mott Haven following the police killing of George Floyd in Minneapolis. Tensions peaked again citywide during pro-Palestine protests after Oct. 7, 2023, notably when the SRG was deployed to several universities to clear student encampments in the spring of 2024.

According to the NYPD, the SRG “responds to citywide mobilizations, civil disorders, and major events with highly trained personnel and specialized equipment.” The unit has “proven to be a critical asset during events like parades, protests and the papal visit,” and is also mobilized for shootings and bank robberies, the NYPD said.

The NYPD did not respond to requests for further comment on the SRG.