Claim:
In November 2025, 5,000 New York Police Department officers resigned, effective January 2026, because they didn’t want to be “ruled under a communist.”
Rating:
Context
There is no evidence of 5,000 NYPD officers participating in a coordinated resignation campaign, or a “massive walkout,” due to Mayor-elect Zohran Mamdani’s November 2025 election win. Because New York City police officials have expressed displeasure with Mamdani’s policing policies, it’s possible officers have resigned, or will resign, because of Mamdani’s administration. However, there are a number of factors leading to a decrease in officers from 2024 to 2025, such as workload issues and uncompetitive compensation, according to NYPD unions.
Following the November 2025 New York mayoral election, a rumor spread on multiple platforms (archived, archived) that 5,000 New York Police Department officers had resigned because they didn’t want to work under Mayor-elect Zohran Mamdani, a self-described democratic socialist who has criticized the department in the past.
More broadly, tabloid stories and posts (archived) by prominent political figures such as Republican U.S. Rep. Elise Stefanik of New York claimed police were fleeing the workforce in historic proportions, without citing specific numbers.
Mamdani campaigned to establish a new Department of Community Safety that would work alongside the NYPD to help relieve the pressure on police to handle mental health crises, hate crime prevention and other responsibilities. “I am not defunding the police; I am not running to defund the police,” Mamdani said in July.
The rumor that 5,000 officers resigned originated in a Nov. 10 Facebook video that has since been removed. That user claimed: “Alright guys, breaking news, the NYPD has 5,000 officers that are gonna be resigning, effective Jan. 1, 2026. … They all wanna leave because they don’t wanna be ruled under a communist.”
This claim was false; there was no evidence of an organized resignation campaign by NYPD officers in response to Mamdani’s election. The user who originally posted the video did not offer any evidence to support the claim. We reached out to the user for more information about why he made the post and will update this article if we receive a response.
A Google search of the claim turned up results either related to fact-checking the claim or related reporting by tabloids such as the New York Post. If the claim were legitimate, there would have been reports by major news media outlets.
(Google.com)
Tabloids such as the New York Post began publishing related rumors about mass resignations or retirements months before Mamdani won. “If Mamdani does get elected there’s going to be mass retirement,” Detectives Endowment Association President Scott Munro said in a July 2025 story. “He doesn’t believe in law enforcement.” (Munro’s group is among the major unions representing members of the NYPD.)
After Mamdani won the election, the New York Post published an article (archived) with the headline, “NYPD already losing officers with morale plunging as anti-cop Zohran Mamdani prepares to take reins.” The story relied on the testimony of Munro as well as another union president, Patrick Hendry of the Police Benevolent Association, and a number of anonymous sources.Â
We reached out to both Munro’s and Hendry’s offices, as well as the NYPD, seeking comment, and will update this story if we receive a response.
The Post also pointed to the reported resignation of Deputy Chief John D’Adamo — who headed the unit that responds to protests and mass demonstrations — which allegedly occurred the day after Mamdani’s election. However, at least one article claimed a friend of D’Adamo’s said the timing was coincidental. Snopes has not independently confirmed the details of his resignation, nor the authenticity of the alleged friend’s quote.
These post-election stories by the New York Post conflated three ideas — the NYPD losing officers, morale decreasing among the department’s ranks and Mamdani winning the mayoral election — but didn’t actually show evidence they were related.
What factors are causing NYPD officers to quit?
It’s true that Hendry and others criticized Mamdani’s positions toward police officers. Still, he did not explicitly correlate any retirements or resignations with Mamdani’s incoming administration; rather, he repeatedly said a number of factors, including an “unsustainable workload,” were contributing to the NYPD losing officers.
In a union press release from Nov. 3, 2025, which the Post linked to, Hendry said:
Recruitment is only one part of the equation. To actually fix the NYPD staffing crisis, we need to keep the cops we already have. Cops are quitting the NYPD every single day because they’re subjected to an inhumane workload, endless demonization and second-guessing and uncompetitive compensation. Addressing those issues should be priority number one for our city leaders, both right now and in the months ahead.
According to the release, the NYPD lost 245 officers in October 2025, compared with 181 in October 2024, without factoring in new hires. Overall, the department had 106 fewer officers in October 2025 than a year earlier. Over that span, 3,668 officers had left the department, while 3,562 had joined.
(Police Benevolent Association of the City of New York Incorporated)
In sum …
We found no evidence to support the claim that 5,000 NYPD officers resigned in a coordinated effort specifically linked to Mamdani’s election. While police union leaders and others have expressed displeasure with Mamdani’s policies and attitude toward police, there are multiple factors beyond his election that have contributed to dropping ranks and low morale, such as workload and compensation issues.
