A decade ago, in 2015, then-Police Commissioner William Bratton entrusted me to develop the New York City Police Department’s Strategic Response Group.
The commissioner was deeply concerned about the department’s ability to respond to a mass-casualty terror attack like the ones that had recently devastated Mumbai and Paris.
In both cities, coordinated teams of terrorists targeted multiple high-profile locations using explosives and AR-style rifles, resulting in significant loss of life.
We created the SRG as a specialized unit of 700 uniformed officers, operating 24/7 across all five boroughs.
The unit was built around three core missions, which remain its purpose today.
First of all, SRG provides counterterrorism support, backing up our elite Emergency Service Unit during terrorist incidents.
We implemented a key innovation: a specially trained and equipped Rescue Task Force that operates in partnership with FDNY/EMS.
This joint unit — the first of its kind in the nation — establishes secure corridors to evacuate and treat injured civilians during active threats.
Notably, this group leaped into action during Monday’s fatal attack on a Midtown office building, safely escorting rescuers caring for victims and securing the lobby, rooftop and perimeter.
SRG also responds to major incidents and emergencies citywide, augmenting precinct resources.
The unit is deployed to active major crimes on a daily basis, including robberies, burglaries, assaults and shootings.
Its officers conduct searches for missing children and elderly individuals, and are equipped to manage civil-disorder incidents with the tools and training to conduct orderly mass arrests.
Finally, SRG officers are strategically assigned to areas experiencing spikes in street crime, and play a vital role in securing major city events — including New Year’s Eve in Times Square, the Fourth of July fireworks and the Thanksgiving Day Parade — by providing essential crowd-control and public-safety functions.
To form SRG, we consolidated nine existing units into a single, unified command capable of responding within minutes to any precinct in the city.
This reorganization both streamlined our emergency response and significantly reduced administrative costs.
Importantly, SRG has adopted clear policies to safeguard First Amendment rights whenever its officers are deployed at demonstrations — and its tactics have led to a significant reduction in lawsuits, saving the city millions of dollars.
The unit is committed to protecting free speech and the right to peaceful assembly, and has been since its inception.
Monday’s attack at 345 Park Avenue in Manhattan demonstrated SRG’s readiness and effectiveness.
The first SRG units arrived on scene at 6:34 pm — just six minutes after the initial 911 call.
Officers entered the building properly armed, equipped and trained to confront the threat and provide aid as needed.
The NYPD’s Strategic Response Group remains a cornerstone of our city’s safety and resilience — which is why it’s so disheartening to hear Zohran Mamdani, a leading candidate for mayor, pledge to eliminate the unit altogether.
If that should come to pass, the question is — who?
Who will render lifesaving aid and evacuate students at a Columbine-, Ulvade- or Parkland-type school shooting?
Who will search for an elderly Alzheimer’s patient who walks out of his Brooklyn home on a freezing winter night, or a 5-year-old child missing from Central Park on a sunny weekend afternoon?
Who will respond to flooding in the Rockaways and evacuate stranded residents?
Who will conduct grid searches for wanted perpetrators after robberies and shootings?
Who will bring calm when civil unrest leads to mass looting of businesses and threats of assault against residents?
To lead this city forward and ensure public safety, these are the questions we need to ask ourselves — as well as those who wish to become our mayor.
Chief Stephen J. Hughes (Ret.) was the founder and first commanding officer of the NYPD’s Strategic Response Group.
This story originally appeared on NYPost
