Updated

Updated · Fox News · Aug 12

NYPD Denies Escort for Mamdani's Wife's Syria, Lebanon Trip as 2 Nations Carry Level 4 Warnings

Updated

Updated · Fox News · Aug 12

NYPD Denies Escort for Mamdani's Wife's Syria, Lebanon Trip as 2 Nations Carry Level 4 Warnings

Q: With the NYPD stepping back, who will protect the NYC Mayor's wife in Level 4 danger zones like Syria?

At this point, no publicly identified government security force is set to protect Rama Duwaji on the Syria and Lebanon trip. The NYPD has said plainly it will not send officers because the travel is personal and both countries are under the State Department’s Level 4 “Do Not Travel” advisory. Mayor Zohran Mamdani later confirmed she would make the trip without an NYPD detail, saying earlier statements from his office were due to a miscommunication. That leaves her protection, if any, unresolved in public reporting. Mamdani has not said whether private security, local contracted protection, or any federal coordination will be used. There is also no indication in the available reporting that the U.S. government plans to provide a protective detail for a private family visit. Security experts cited in the coverage said sending New York police into Syria or Lebanon would have been unusually risky, expensive, and likely dependent on substantial federal cooperation. Former NYPD Commissioner Bill Bratton said such an assignment would require many logistical and diplomatic hurdles. In practical terms, if Duwaji is protected at all, it would most likely have to come from privately arranged security or in-country local arrangements, not the NYPD. But as of the latest reporting, those arrangements have not been disclosed, so the direct answer is that no confirmed protector has been publicly named.

3 articles · Updated · Fox News · Aug 12

NYPD said it will not send officers to accompany Mayor Zohran Mamdani’s wife, Rama Duwaji, on her September family trip to Syria and Lebanon.
Level 4 State Department advisories on both countries drove the decision, with police saying officers are not deployed abroad for discretionary personal travel to high-risk destinations.
Mamdani’s office had earlier said her security detail would join the trip, then later blamed the discrepancy on a staff miscommunication after the NYPD position became clear.
Scott Munro, head of the Detectives’ Endowment Association, said detectives should not be sent to dangerous foreign countries except for legitimate law-enforcement or intelligence missions.
The dispute adds to already strained ties between Mamdani and the department, which he had sharply criticized in past calls to defund the NYPD.