NYPD ‘staffing crisis’ could put the city in jeopardy, union officials say

New York City police officers are leaving the force en masse, driven out by low salaries, anti-cop sentiment and poor benefits, according to the police union.

So far in 2022, 1,596 officers have left the department – either retiring or quitting – already outpacing all of last year by 437, according to stats from the New York City Police Department Pension Fund. The 38 percent jump in departures by the police comes at a time of rising crime in the city.

The Big Apple crime rate has jumped nearly 40 percent so far in 2022, according to police statistics. 

Though police reform, especially the ‘Defund the Police’ movement, has lost popularity in the face of the city’s rising rate of violence, there is still strong anti-police sentiment in the city

Just one month into 2022, Detectives Wilbert Mora and Jason Rivera were shot in Harlem while responding to a domestic disturbance call.

There’s been a whopping 40 percent rise in robberies, a 19 percent increase in felony assaults and a 14.8 per cent increase in rapes.

Union officials warn that unless the police attrition rate is addressed, the trend will continue, worsening the quality of life in the city. 

‘The NYPD is sliding deeper into a staffing crisis that will ultimately hurt public safety,’ Police Benevolent Association President Patrick J. Lynch said ‘Low pay, inferior benefits and constant abuse from the City Council and other anti-cop demagogues has pushed attrition to record highs.’

As of May 31, 524 cops have resigned and 1,072 have retired, according to pension fund stats obtained by the New York Post.

In 2021, 1,159 officers left the force, a 46 percent increase from 2020 when the number was 1,092. 

‘Meanwhile the Department is struggling to fill Academy classes,’ Lynch said. ‘We need more cops working more hours to turn the tide of violence, but there is only so much overtime they can squeeze out of the cops who remain. Our city leaders need to act fast to stop the exodus.’

The NYPD disputed the pension fund numbers released to the Post.

According to the department’s numbers, there have been 1,091 – or one fewer – officers who have left the force by the end of May. They say that there were only 497 resignations and 594 retirements.

Full-year statistics released to the Mailonline show that 3,152 officers left the force in 2020, meaning that the pace of retirements this year is only slightly higher. There were far fewer departures in 2021, with 2,689 officers exiting.

The police union’s warning cry comes a month after the defeat of a bill in the City Council that would increase the pensions of longer-serving officers. 

The effort fell short of passing by just four votes. 

NYPD Commissioner, Keechant Sewell, has been forced to oversee a diminishing workforce

‘Police have been getting away with a lot of things in this city, with a bloated budget, with police brutality and killings, without any penalties or consequences,’ Brooklyn Councilman Charles Barron told Politico. ‘As much as I have a heart for their families, when it comes to the police, they just get away with everything.’

Though police reform, especially the ‘Defund the Police’ movement, has lost popularity in the face of the city’s rising rate of violence, there is still strong anti-police sentiment in the city.

‘The city is bleeding blue and only the cop haters will be celebrating,’ cop turned criminal justice professor Joseph Giacalone told the Post. ‘There’s no way to stop it. Activists, abolitionists, and their pandering politicians have done so much damage to the profession, that it will take a generation to fix, if at all.’

During the George Floyd protests in 2020, former Mayor Bill de Blasio urged ranking officers to kneel before the demonstrators as a sign of contrition. 

One of those officers was Chief of Department Terrance Monahan, who was beaten and bloodied during a ‘Defund the Police’ protest on the Brooklyn Bridge later that year. Several other officers were also injured.

A protester holds up a ‘Defund the Police’ sign, an anti-cop sentiment that some say has attributed to officers leaving the force

An NYPD officer clashes with a protester on the Brooklyn Bridge during a ‘Defund the Police’ protest in 2020

A protester inside the so-called ‘autonomous-zone’ during a ‘Defund the police’ protest outside New York’s City Hall

Violence against cops has also been a factor. Just one month into 2022, Detectives Wilbert Mora and Jason Rivera were shot in Harlem while responding to a domestic disturbance call. 

Officers were hit with canes, bats and debris during 2020 police reform protests.

Bail reform laws, which allowed non-violent offenders to remain free pending trial, have been blamed for much of the rising crime rate.

Frank James denied he took part in a terrorist attack, violence against a mass transportation system and discharging a firearm during a crime of violence

One man was seen injured in the shooting as officers and a Good Samaritan tried to help him

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Progressive Manhattan District Attorney Alvin Bragg, who has carried on policies from the previous prosecutor, vowed not to ask for bail for repeat offenders, even in some cases where violence is threatened.

Recently, however, New York State legislators passed a bill, which was signed into law that allows judges to consider dangerousness to the community in setting bail.

Still officers see the bail reform movement as counterproductive when it comes to crime fighting.

Terence Monahan, pictured, the most senior uniformed police officer in New York, has said he does not believe the NYPD is racist and urged the protesters not to resort to violence and looting

‘The city is out of control — especially since bail reform,’ a former cop told the NY Post. He said that the sentiment inside the force is to ‘get out while you still can.’

The ex-cop, who declined to be named, said that reduced manpower created an unbearable workload for officers. 

‘You’d go to work and you’d answer 25 to 30 jobs a day and you’re burnt out by the end of the day,’ the former officer told the paper. ‘There was no time for law enforcement’ because it would be ‘radio run, radio run, radio run all day long.’

Theodore Ellis, 30, allegedly pushed a woman onto the subway tracks in The Bronx on June 7. He was arrested Tuesday after an eagle-eyed MTA worker recognized him from a wanted poster and flagged down cops

He said that even after arrests were made, suspects were released almost immediately.

‘They were back in the precinct picking up their property the same day,’ he told the Post. 

There are normally 36,000 sworn law enforcement officers on the NYPD, according to the department website, but city data shows that the number has dropped to 34,687 cops.

New York Mayor Eric Adams, who was an ex-cop who ran on a law and order platform, has lost credibility among Big Apple residents amid the rise in crime.

While murders and shooting are down 9.9 and 7.9 per cent, respectively, from last year, overall crime is up nearly 40 percent so far in 2022, according to police statistics.

There’s been a whopping 40 percent rise in robberies, a 19 percent increase in felony assaults and a 14.8 per cent increase in rapes.

New York City Mayor Eric Adams, a former police detective who was voted into office after promising to crack down on gun violence, addresses mourners during Rivera’s funeral

Transit crimes are up the highest, though, at 57.5 percent – with 907 reported through May 22, 2022, compared to 576 reported at the same time last year.

 High profile crimes, especially in the subway system, are all over the news in New York.

 In February, Deloitte analyst Michelle Go, 40, was fatally pushed in front of a subway train in Times Square station by a mentally ill homeless man. Another Asian woman, Christina Yuna Lee, was followed into her building after she came home late in March and stabbed her to death in her own apartment.

In May, Frank James, 62, set off smoke bombs inside a subway care in Sunset Park, Brooklyn then sprayed the car with gunfire, injuring 10 people.

Beloved voice coach Barbara Gustern, 87, was shoved to the ground in March by a complete stranger, causing her to fatally strike her head, according to authorities. A Long Island publicist, Lauren Pazienza, 26, was arrested and charged for her death. 

Last week, a ‘drunk’ career criminal, Theodore Ellis, 52, hurled a woman onto the train tracks in the Bronx, causing her to break her collarbone and suffer other injuries.

Mayor Adams fumed at prosecutors and judges for cutting loose suspected shooters, allowing them to unleash more gunfire in New York— saying the ‘bad guys no longer take them seriously.’

 NYPD officers can retire with a pension after 20 years of service, collecting about half of their salary every year in retirement. The widows and families of police officers are also sometimes eligible to collect their pensions.

 Many officers opt to stay in law enforcement after retiring from the NYPD, which is considered more demanding and lower paying than working as a cop  for the Port Authority of New York and New Jersey, or suburban enclaves in New Jersey, Long Island or West Chester County. Other U.S. cities often run advertisements in New York in the hope to lure officers to quieter parts of the country with a lower cost of living, like Florida, Texas and Arizona.

 In April, the NYPD Police Academy graduated its most recent class, adding 611 probationary officers to the ranks. Another class expecting to graduate soon will add another 675 cops, according to the Post.

Police aren’t the only ones leaving the Adams administration.

The number of full-time city workers had dropped six percent, from 300,000 pre-pandemic to 282,000 in May, according to Independent Budget Office numbers obtained by Gothamist. 

The strong job market and the city’s policy forcing workers to return to the office has fueled the mas exit, according to the report.