NYPD's Protest Crackdown Unit Costs $134 Million a Year -- New Bill Would Shut It Down

The Unit That Treats Protesters Like Enemy Combatants

The NYPD's Strategic Response Group (SRG) was supposed to focus on counterterrorism. Instead, it became the city's go-to weapon for crushing dissent.

Since 2015, the SRG has deployed military-grade crowd control tactics against New Yorkers exercising their First Amendment rights. Officers have fired pepper spray indiscriminately into crowds. They have used bicycles as battering rams. They have trapped protesters in "kettles" with no way out, then arrested them en masse.

This is not policing. This is suppression.

The unit's mission creep happened fast. Within weeks of promising to limit the SRG to counterterrorism work, the NYPD reversed course and sent the unit to protests across the city. The New York Civil Liberties Union's Protest Monitoring Program has documented the violence firsthand. In 2021, the NYCLU and more than 80 organizations called for the unit to be disbanded. Mayor Mamdani has now pledged to do exactly that in his first year in office.

But here is the problem: disbanding one unit does not prevent another from taking its place. Without structural safeguards, the NYPD could simply rebrand the SRG and continue business as usual.

A $134 Million Weapon Against Free Speech

The SRG's budget tells the story of its expansion. In its first year, the unit cost taxpayers $13 million. By 2024, that figure had exploded to an estimated $134 million annually.

That money funds a force trained in militarized tactics and equipped with weapons designed for war zones, not city streets. The SRG has deployed the Long Range Acoustic Device (LRAD), a sound weapon that can cause permanent hearing damage. Officers have used tear gas, pepper balls, and flash-bang grenades at close range, often without warning.

These tactics are not reserved for violent riots. They have been used against demonstrators outside immigration detention centers and ICE facilities, against racial justice protesters, against anyone who dares to challenge government policy in public.

Across the country, the crackdown on protest rights is accelerating. Since 2024, lawmakers in at least 27 states have introduced more than 100 bills aimed at criminalizing protest activity. Some would turn blocking traffic -- a staple of civil disobedience -- into a felony offense.

New York has an opportunity to move in the opposite direction.

The CURB Act Builds on Legal Victories

In 2024, the NYCLU, The Legal Aid Society, and the New York Attorney General's office reached a landmark settlement that fundamentally changed how the NYPD is supposed to police protests. The agreement established a four-tiered response system designed to limit when and how the SRG can be deployed, restricting its use to higher-risk situations.

That settlement was a hard-fought victory. But legal agreements are only as strong as the political will to enforce them.

The Communities United to Reject Brutality (CURB) Act would codify those wins in law and go further. The bill would remove the SRG from protest policing entirely and ban the militarized tactics that have become its signature: kettling, tear gas, indiscriminate pepper spray, and the LRAD.

Critically, the CURB Act would prevent the NYPD from simply creating a new unit to do the SRG's dirty work. It would establish transparency and accountability measures, requiring regular public reporting on how the department polices protests.

Trump's War on Protest Demands a Response

President Trump has made clear that he views protest as a threat to be neutralized, not a right to be protected. His administration has encouraged violent crackdowns on demonstrators, particularly those protesting immigration enforcement and detention.

New York cannot afford to wait for federal leadership on this issue. The city has an obligation to protect the rights of its residents, especially when those rights are under attack from Washington.

Thousands of New Yorkers have been harmed by the SRG. They have demanded action for years. The CURB Act would ensure that people can speak out without fear of being gassed, beaten, or trapped by police.

The right to protest is not a privilege granted by the government. It is a fundamental check on government power. Protecting it requires more than lip service about the value of free speech.

City Council has the power to pass the CURB Act. The question is whether they have the courage to use it.