Reform cops, boost COVID tests: Adams

Community groups would help select police precinct commanders and other key NYPD personnel under a proposal from mayoral contender Eric Adams.

That’s one of dozens of new ideas from the current Brooklyn borough president as the mayoral race heats up.

A 24-page policy paper his campaign shared Sunday with the Daily News aims at addressing issues including key challenges of the era: demands for police reform, saving the economy and protecting New Yorkers’ health.

“New York is at a crossroads, and we need a smarter, more effective government that addresses both our current challenges and our historic injustices,” Adams, a former NYPD captain, said in a statement. “As a lifelong New Yorker who faced economic hardship and police brutality as a young man, I have spent my adult life fighting for that better city, and these first 100-plus steps are how we get to it.”

In Adams’ vision, community boards and precinct councils would approve or veto precinct commanders with supermajority votes.

Adams also wrote that he would publicize the names of cops the NYPD is monitoring for bad behavior “to be transparent and build trust.” This idea comes in the wake of heated anti-police-brutality protests sparked by the May 25 death of George Floyd.

Adams, a former Republican facing a number of opponents to his left, echoed their calls to boost taxes on the wealthy as the city grapples with a multi-billion-dollar revenue shortfall.

He also said he’d “significantly increase COVID-19 testing, education and treatment,” with an emphasis on “hard-hit lower-income communities — especially those that do not speak English.”