(Mark Pellin, Headline USA) Police are fleeing New York City at a record-breaking alarming pace, as crime rates skyrocket, morale slumps and a leftist governor and Big Apple mayor do little to address issues that law enforcement claim are most important.
A New York Post review of NYPD data showed that 239 officers called it quits in January and February, a 36% spike from the 176 who left during the same period last year. The departures marked a shocking 117% jump from 2021. The mass exodus marked the highest number of resignations for the first two months of any year since the department’s bitter contract dispute in 2007.
“The NYPD staffing emergency is approaching the point of no return,” said Police Benevolent Association President Patrick Lynch.
In a major case of delusional expectations, New York City Democrat Mayor Eric Adams last summer said he didn’t fret officers leaving Gotham’s force in record droves. When asked by a Fox News affiliate if he was “concerned there are reports that over 500 cops are resigning and over 1,000 are retiring,” Adams dismissed any worry.
“New York City Department is an amazing career. I know it first hand,” Adams said. “We’re going to find young men and women, who are going to want to be a member of New York City’s finest… We’ve got an amazing recruitment campaign coming in and it’s a great opportunity to diversify the department.”
That forecast crumbled. In only a two-day period last month, 21 cops walked out to join the city’s metro transit force, the Post reported.
“The city is out of control — especially since bail reform,” a former NYPD officer told the Post last year as the exodus started. The mantra now is “get out while you still can.”
The departures come at a time when the NYPD’s staffing levels, at about 33,822 uniformed cops, are already 1,208 below the department’s budgeted headcount, according to documents the Post reviewed. The police resignations hit as NYC crime has spiked nearly 22% across the board, including robberies, burglaries and felony assaults.
Soaring crime is only a snapshot of a much larger picture plaguing the NYPD, officers told the Post.
“The NYPD needs to be rebuilt from the ground up — it’s unfixable in its current state,” a veteran Manhattan cop said. “It’s not just politics and poor pay. Precinct cops are being forced to work an inhumane amount of overtime, including on their days off, while being penalized for minor uniform and administrative infractions.”
The petty penalties and other forms of retribution linger from the anti-law enforcement, defund the police movement that leftists embraced following the violent riots of 2020 after the murder of criminal George Floyd, police told the Post.
While some NYPD officers are leaving the force to join the city’s metro system, others are fleeing the region as a whole. Many have turned to states like Florida, where both the pay and also the environment are better.
Spero Georgedakis, who grew up in Queens wanting to be a part of “New York’s Finest,” has seen the departure first hand. Georgedakis is a former Miami SWAT officer who now helps recruit and relocate New York City cops to Florida departments.
“We had four or five New York City police officers reach out to us last week,” Georgedakis said. “They saw the spots, and we gave them [salary] quotes.”
Upwards of 1,400 officers will have quite the department by year’s end, if resignations continue at the current pace, the Post projected based on available data.
“We are losing cops to better pay and benefits in other policing jobs almost every day,” said Lynch, whose PBA reps 22,000 uniformed officers.
