Jim Walden for Mayor of New York City
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Independent Mayoral Candidate Jim Walden Calls to Abolish the CCRB

 

FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE
June 10, 2025
(646) 705-3286
sara@jimfornyc.com

 

New York, NY… Today, Jim Walden announced his plan to fix the city’s broken system for investigating police misconduct, which is failing both officers and New Yorkers. Walden’s plan will replace the ineffective Civilian Complaint Review Board (CCRB) with a truly independent and empowered agency. The new agency, the Citywide Department of Public Integrity (CDPI), will be better for everyone: better due process protections for police and more effective at punishing serious misconduct.

Independent Mayoral candidate Jim Walden, running on the ballot line for the Integrity Party, said, “For too long, police have endured a system that is fundamentally unfair, including by leaving unsubstantiated complaints on their records. For too long, CCRB has been ineffective at rooting out serious misconduct. My plan will solve both problems. Replacing CCRB with a better agency is the latest example of my commitment to bring independence and integrity to City Hall.”

CDPI will have the power to prosecute offenders and ban them from holding jobs in city government. Its prosecutors will bring cases in a newly created Citywide Corruption Court to fast-track cases. Once added through a Charter revision, CDPI will enjoy complete independence from City Hall and NYPD. In fairness to officers, CDPI will handle only the most serious cases (corruption, excessive force and abuse of authority), with NYPD’s internal administrative system handling less serious allegations.

CDPI will be a powerful and exclusive means to combat corruption and abuse. Once the CDPI is in place, self-policing in city agencies, including the NYPD, will end. Walden will dismantle NYPD Internal Affairs. No city agency, including the NYPD, will be permitted to self-investigate allegations of corruption or serious misconduct by its employees.

Walden concluded, “CDPI will ensure due process rights for officers, protecting innocent officers and restoring NYPD morale, but will also have unflinching consequences for serious misconduct.”

Walden, a former mob-busting federal prosecutor, has raised almost $3 million. He is the first independent candidate ever to qualify for public matching funds in a citywide race. He qualified for November’s ballot with almost 24,000 signatures, more than 6 times the number required. He has been endorsed by the largest labor organization in the city, with 250,000 members. Fifty-eight citywide prosecutors endorsed him, including former Manhattan District Attorney Cyrus Vance (D) and former U.S. Attorney Richard Donoghue (R). He received the first NYPD endorsement of the cycle.

You can access the full plan here.

About Jim Walden

Jim Walden learned early that success comes through resilience and hard work while growing up in working-class Levittown, Pennsylvania. Despite an abusive father who abandoned the family when Jim was 14, he graduated near the top of his class while distinguishing himself in debate. His two years in the U.S. Navy’s Junior Reserve Officers’ Training Corps earned him dozens of commendations, foreshadowing a lifetime of public service.

It wasn’t easy for Jim to get to college. He spent a year working multiple jobs—from drugstore clerk to fast-food worker—sleeping on a friend’s floor while saving for his education. At Hamilton College, he excelled academically, winning awards for public speaking and campus service, and played rugby. He went to Temple University law school and graduated first in his class. He secured a coveted clerkship with a federal appellate judge in Philadelphia, Anthony Scirica.

As a criminal prosecutor for the U.S. Department of Justice, Jim quickly earned a reputation for innovative strategies that made him the go-to prosecutor for FBI and DEA agents, as well as NYPD officers. Focusing on organized crime, his investigations led to more than 100 convictions—including members of all five New York crime families and one of the FBI’s Ten Most Wanted Fugitives. He helped to solve 25 cold-case homicides. His groundbreaking work against the mafia was featured in two documentaries, National Geographic’s “Inside the American Mob” and Vanity Fair’s “The Disco Inferno.”

Jim built one of New York City’s premier litigation boutiques over a decade, while maintaining an unwavering commitment to public service law. Across his 20+ year career in private practice, his “good government” work has touched many corners of city life, including:

  • Fought for safer schools by forcing the Department of Education to protect bullied school kids
  • Secured $250 million for emergency repairs and better living conditions for over 400,000 NYCHA residents
  • Protected public spaces by stopping illegal parkland transfers in Manhattan and Brooklyn
  • Defended voting rights by successfully challenging gerrymandered voting maps
  • Restored vital food assistance to impoverished New Yorkers
  • Protected hundreds of thousands of city retirees from healthcare cuts
  • Saved emergency care in Southern Brooklyn when SUNY wanted to close a critical hospital

Jim’s focus on reform was not just local. He tackled international and national problems as well. Jim also helped expose corruption in international sports, representing whistleblowers who testified about Russian doping during the Olympics and international soccer (FIFA). Jim’s work on the Olympics was featured in the Academy Award winning film “Icarus.” Jim’s work on sports integrity led him to draft a ground-breaking law, the “Rodchenkov Anti-doping Act,” giving the FBI long-arm jurisdiction over doping in international sports competitions, including the Olympics, which President Trump signed into law in December 2020. Nationally, Jim has called for criminal-justice reform in a number of OpEds. He supported women’s right to safe abortions by drafting legislation to give red-state women a path to safe abortions in blue states, which sparked a nationwide campaign  oined by the legendary activist Gloria Steinam, Academy Award winning actress Jennifer Lawrence and Academy Award-winning director Aaron Sorkin, among many other celebrities. Sorkin actually wrote the screenplay for “Molly’s Game,” which featured Idris Elba playing a character based on Jim and his work for Molly Bloom.

While building this career over 30 years and running a thriving law practice, Jim has remained devoted to family and community.He and his wife raised three children in Brooklyn, while financially supporting his sister and her four children. His commitment to public service extends to philanthropic work across numerous issues, and service on an array of not-for-profit boards, demonstrating that success means lifting others as you rise.

Jim’s story—from a challenging childhood to becoming one of New York’s most effective advocates for justice—embodies the spirit of our city: resilient, innovative, and deeply committed to helping others succeed.

For more information: jimfornyc.com.