NEW YORK — Mayor Zohran Mamdani is expected to announce a plan to disband the NYPD’s controversial Strategic Response Group as he revamps the city’s protest response system, possibly as soon as Monday, as he faces criticism from advocates and his left-wing base for not moving the needle enough on public safety changes, sources tell the Daily News.

The new protest response strategy will be unrolled in phases, sources briefed on the administration’s plan told the Daily News, starting with disbanding the SRG and creating greater separation between the department’s counterterrorism and protest response operations. The SRG operates within the Special Operations Division, though SRG officers are often sent to major incidents, including those terror-related.

Asked about the expected changes, Mamdani Friday reiterated that he’s “committed” to disbanding the SRG and that he doesn’t “believe that the responsibilities of counterterrorism and enforcement and First Amendment response are one and the same.”

Mamdani’s movement on dissolving the SRG comes as he nears the end of his first year in office and after he’s faced significant pushback from advocates who’ve criticized him for a largely hands-off approach to public safety and for keeping police commissioner Jessica Tisch, who served under the previous administration, in her role.

But the move to disband the SRG has sparked pushback from NYPD officers.

Patrick Hendry, head of the Police Benevolent Association, the largest police union, said Friday that Mamdani “and his allies just don’t want the NYPD involved in police demonstrations at all.”

“Ever since we fought the city’s dangerous federal lawsuit settlement we have warned that forcing cops to sit on the sidelines until a demonstration has already turned violent puts both police officers and the public at greater risk,” he said.

It was unclear Friday exactly what the NYPD protest response would look like once the SRG is disbanded, but the department is still expected to play a significant role in protest responses, with one source characterizing the move more as a “rebranding.”

“Operationally, it’s not changing,” the source said. “Police will still be out there.”

The issue has been the source of some friction between Mamdani and Tisch, who’s a staunch supporter of the SRG. On Friday, the NYPD would not comment on the impending announcement.

The SRG, which was formed in January 2015 by then-Police Commissioner Bill Bratton, has been accused of using overly aggressive tactics during demonstrations and has faced many legal challenges, particularly stemming from protests in the wake of the Minneapolis police killing of George Floyd in 2020.

Numerous lawsuits accused SRG of police brutality and of stifling the right to protest, and as a result, in 2023, the city agreed to modify its tactics at protests in a multi-million dollar federal settlement.

Since then, it has largely operated in a stand-by capacity, close by if enforcement action is needed, such as in September, when several arrests were made at protests near the United Nations. SRG officers were also nearby at a March protest outside Gracie Mansion in which a homemade bomb was thrown, though other officers arrested the two suspects.

As a candidate, Mamdani promised to reshape the city’s public safety apparatus, homing in on the SRG, the controversial gang database used by the police department and the city’s response to the mentally ill and crime prevention.

Earlier this year, he established the Office of Community Safety — a pared-down version of the Department of Community Safety that he pledged on the campaign trail. The office, which Mamdani says he still wants to transform into a fully-fledged department, is still taking shape.

It’s unclear how much of a role the OCS would play in protest response once SRG is disbanded — but sources said that down the line, civilian teams will be used to communicate and de-escalate at protests.

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