Two more classes of NYPD recruits will be added this spring and summer, bringing the department rank-and-file to near its highest headcount in the coming year, Mayor Eric Adams and Police Commissioner Edward Caban announced on Saturday.
Hizzoner credited strong fiscal management and a stronger-than-expected economic rebound for the city in enabling City Hall to restore funding to two additional Police Department classes in the executive budget.
“This will allow us to have 1,200 additional officers who will be hitting our streets to keep our city even safer in the coming year,” Mayor Adams said during an April 20 press conference in Manhattanville.
The two 600-recruit classes will be added this May and July, and will supplement two other classes added in recent months. By next year, the four combined classes, upon graduation from the NYPD Police Academy, will deliver 2,400 new police officers to the city, and bring the total uniformed NYPD headcount to 35,000, which Caban said would be “more or less” near a record high.
“The people we serve demand public safety, and the men and women of the NYPD are proud to hold that line,” Caban said. “These additional officers will play a key role in our efforts to reduce violence and protect New Yorkers.”
The influx of new officers could not come sooner for the NYPD. While Mayor Adams and Commissioner Caban touted a sustained drop in crime citywide, the department has had to do more with less, as attrition within the rank-and-file — namely from a surge in officer retirements — saw the headcount drop to under 34,000 and a surge in overtime expenses.
Even with the logistical challenges, Mayor Adams noted, major crimes have dropped each month so far in 2024 off a year-long decrease in 2023. Shootings and homicides have plummeted in particular, and the NYPD has turned the tide on an early spike in transit crime — as a surge of 1,000 police officers daily into the subway system resulted in double-digit crime decreases underground in February and March.
“We’re driving down crime, we’ve saved lives and we have laid the foundation for our economic recovery,” the mayor said. “But we want to keep the success going. … [This] puts New York City on the path of having a total of 35,000 uniformed officers in the coming year. We’re getting those numbers back up to the numbers that we believe are needed to continue our success.”
Caban noted that the NYPD’s increased use in technology — from drones to weapons detection software — have helped the department do more to stop crime, but there is no substitute for having more officers on the streets throughout the city.
“The men and women of the NYPD are the ultimate fighters of crime,” the commissioner noted. “They’re the ones who know our neighborhoods and use technology to develop solutions. They’re the ones who stand on the street corner and let the world know, ‘Not today, not on my watch.'”
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