Major crime [PDF] continues to fall. Cops no longer have to lock up thousands of New Yorkers for possessing small amounts of marijuana or stop hundreds of thousands of innocent people every day, and the state's top criminal court judge has recommended that the NYPD decrease their enforcement activities even further. Given these developments, it makes sense that Mayor de Blasio declined to include the money to hire 1,000 more police officers in his proposed budget yesterday. Nevermind what the mayor says, Police Commissioner Bill Bratton insists: we're getting more police officers.
Stephen Davis, the NYPD's top spokesman, issued a statement yesterday saying, "The Police Commissioner is confident that there will be an increase in the size of the force necessary to staff the recommendations of the re-engineering study that is nearing completion. Discussions with the Mayor's office are continuing."
How can Bratton be so sure that his stream of urine will flow thicker and longer than de Blasio's?
The City Council still has to pass the mayor's budget, and Speaker Melissa Mark-Viverito has repeatedly advocated for hiring 1,000 more police officers, at the initial cost of $100 million (pensions and benefits ensure that it would cost much more than continuing to pay existing officers overtime).
"The City Council is disappointed that the Executive Budget does not contain funding for new Police Officers who will help give Commissioner Bratton the tools he needs to continue to keep crime low while also improving police-community relations," the speaker said yesterday in a joint release with Finance Committee chair Julissa Ferreras.
The Speaker has had a difficult time articulating how more officers would produce better "police-community relations." Would 1,000 more cops mean that they'd help turnstile-jumpers find employment? Because apparently that's already happening, without the billions in extra funding.
"We want a consistent presence in a pro-active way with our communities, and we need more officers in order to do that—at the same time that we’re holding NYPD accountable to be responsible," Mark-Viverito said last month.
"Many of us continue to believe very strongly that this Police Department needs more police officers. And if we put in place effective community policing the way it is supposed to be, you need more officers on the ground interacting with communities," she said in February.
Is the Speaker trying to bolster her establishment bona fides for a run at a higher office in the future? Is she doing the Mayor a favor by taking responsibility for an increase that he can't publicly support without angering his base? Does Bratton think the Mayor owes him one for his unwavering support as his officers turned their backs? None of these considerations should matter: are more cops worth the civic costs?
"To me, they don't really need those 1,000 new officers," one retired detective told Gotham Gazette last month. "They'd be better off spending the money to open up some of these community centers."
