Bloomberg Delays Hiring 540 Police Cadets

Photograph of a 2006 NYPD graduation by JMS2 on Flickr

Five hundred forty police recruits that were supposed to be sworn in this month will now enter the NYPD later this year, a move from the Bloomberg administration that has the City Council and police union angry. The NY Times notes, "The department’s head count is now 34,525 officers, about 6,000 fewer officers than at the peak of departmental staffing, in 2000," which prompted this assessment from City Councilman Peter Vallone (D-Queens) in a letter to Mayor Bloomberg, "I believe you can't have economic recovery unless it's built upon the bedrock of a safe city. We learned that lesson in the '90s and apparently we are forgetting it now."

The class has already been delayed—these recruits were supposed to be sworn in back in January. According to the Times, mayoral spokesman Stu Loeser "said the administration was merely shifting the April class to July, when 900 police recruits were already expected to be hired. Mr. Loeser said the city would 'do a combined class then.' He said everyone eligible to be hired in April would be eligible in July, after the start of the next fiscal year. Mr. Loeser said that the final July enrollment, whether 1,450 or some other number, would be determined through the city’s budget process." But Vallone complains that police officers are still retiring each month, "By the time any cadets hired in July get onto the streets, it will be January 2012. And as every month goes by, we lose over a hundred officers to attrition."

Vallone's letter to Bloomberg was also signed by City Council Speaker Christine Quinn, who told the Wall Street Journal the Council was seeing if this decision could be blocked, "The process was wrong and the decision was wrong, and it was disrespectful of an institution that has stood up nine times in a row and made budget cuts. It's simply something we're not going to take lying down."

While overall crime was down last year, murders and rapes increased. Two months ago, the Mayor presented an austere budget, which includes thousands of teacher layoffs and 20 fire company closings.

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By Jen Chung in News on April 13, 2011 1:57 PM

Comments [rss]

Guest

540 fewer thugs on the street for a little while.

Gothamistriss

Smh to these comments. They may write you tickets, but they are also the ones to put their lives in danger when yours is too. Maybe it's never happened to you, but it's happened to me and to see cops running towards me when everybody else was running away was an imagine i'll never forget.

Don't forget that poor girl was killed the other day after several calls for help because there weren't any cops available. A few years and several thousand cops ago i'd be willing to bet her life could have been saved.

JoeBolton

I think they should disband the entire police force and let us law abiding citizens carry firearms. This way we wouldn't have to worry about them harassing bikers and such. Like cmdrogogov says what does the NYPD have to do with making the city safe? ishtar_79 knows both better and cheaper ways to prevent crime. I would vote for him/her for mayor. He makes a good point. I'm not really sure what they are but he sounds like he has a good handle on ways to curb crime in our city.

cmdrogogov

What a completely idiotic post.

ishtar_79

The link between more cops and less crime is pretty weak. There are far better and cheaper ways to prevent crime than hiring more cops like law enforcement ceasing their antagonistic behavior, which would lead more citizens to become less hostile and more cooperative.

Also, Quinn would make a terrible business woman. It's generally cheaper to pay your existing employees overtime than it is to hire additional workers that you have to provide benefits and pensions for.

Ken Campbell

When the NYPD has enough cops to waste time shadowing cyclists at Critical Mass, loitering in cars, and running bogus speed traps in Central Park, they don't need to hire any additional cadets. Maybe if they down-size and the existing lard-butts have to actually do some policing they will put in their papers and move on to their next pension-bloated stage of life. New blood in NYPD with a new, more enlightened perspective, would then be a good thing.