The Legal Aid Society is calling on new Mayor Eric Adams to hold the New York Police Department (NYPD) to a high standard when it comes to the use of excessive force, as reported by The New York Times.

The mayor must demonstrate that police misconduct will be taken seriously and addressed swiftly. Tackling some of our city’s most pressing public safety issues, especially gun violence, will require full funding for proven, community-based approaches, including the CURE Violence model, and not a knee-jerk resort to the failed, aggressive and racist approaches of the past.

While Adams has stated his internet to reinstate the controversial plain clothes “anti-crime” units in an effort to reduce violent crime it will be critical that those officers are held to a higher standard than their predecessors, who were notorious for their own violence, especially towards communities of color.

“What we have here is an opportunity to focus not on what uniform is an officer wearing or the name of the unit they’re in,” said Corey Stoughton, Attorney-in-Charge of the Special Litigation Unit with Legal Aid Society’s Criminal Defense Practice. “But what are they doing? And how is that affecting New Yorkers — and in particular Black and brown New Yorkers — who bore the brunt of aggressive and violent policing activity over the years?”