Former Gov. Andrew Cuomo at a mayoral marketing campaign announcement on March 2, 2025.
Photograph by Dean Moses
Former Gov. Andrew Cuomo, the obvious frontrunner within the 2025 NYC mayor’s race, mentioned Sunday he would rent 5,000 new NYPD officers because the centerpiece of a public security plan he rolled out whereas visiting a Harlem church.
Cuomo advised congregants at Mount Neboh Baptist Church on March 9 that the NYPD’s rank-and-file right now, about 34,000, is smaller than it was in the course of the Dinkins administration greater than 30 years in the past. The division has seen a current exodus of officers retiring early and has leaned upon pricey extra time bills to maintain tempo with crime-fighting applications similar to a number of police surges into the subway system.
Nonetheless, the previous governor famous that the rise in extra time work has solely exacerbated the NYPD’s staffing downside. Cops are getting burned out from their longer shifts and quitting early. In the meantime, he famous, town has spent greater than a billion {dollars} on police extra time.
“Police are getting burned out. Police are quitting. One of the highest attrition rates ever. And we can’t even attract new people to be police officers,” Cuomo mentioned.
The previous governor mentioned morale on the NYPD took one other hit on account of the “defund the police” motion within the early a part of this decade. Cuomo chastised those that supported such cuts as “pandering to the extremists.”
To unravel the issue, Cuomo mentioned, if elected, he would comply with the instance of the late Mayor David Dinkins. Whereas going through traditionally excessive crime charges, Dinkins ordered a 40% enhance within the police pressure in 1990, elevating the whole variety of officers to a peak of 38,438.
Cuomo’s proposed hiring of 5,000 new NYPD officers would quantity to a 15% enhance within the present division headcount, bringing the whole roster to roughly 39,100 cops — “just about equal” to the height NYPD depend within the mid-Nineteen Nineties. However, the previous governor mentioned it will make a big distinction in not solely protecting New York Metropolis protected, but in addition be extra economical for town.
“Because the overtime is so high, you can hire 5,000 new police officers for half the amount you’re spending in overtime,” Cuomo advised congregants. “And the police will have less burnout. There’ll be less attrition, [and it would] be easier to hire new police officers.”
The governor added that the extra cops would rightsize the NYPD to satisfy town’s inhabitants development during the last three many years. 1,000,000 extra New Yorkers now reside within the Large Apple than in the course of the early Nineteen Nineties, when the NYPD had its highest variety of officers.
Cuomo additionally proposed altering the pay construction to supply common pay will increase to NYPD officers for his or her years of service, which might provide “a more attractive long-term career path for officers,” in keeping with his marketing campaign. At the moment, new officers begin with an annual wage of $58,580, which may climb after 5 1/2 years of service to a aggressive base of $121,589 per yr.
Nonetheless, hiring extra cops just isn’t the one means to make sure public security. The candidate referred to as for offering extra assets to assist younger, at-risk minority males between 18 and 24 years of age, whereas additionally forging stronger connections between the neighborhood and the NYPD.
“We have to give them a positive future. We have to get them a job. And we have to do a private employment sharing program,” Cuomo mentioned. “We have to get them apprenticeships. We have to show them that there’s a positive way forward. And of course, the police we hire have to respect the community, have to be disciplined. And there has to be a relationship of mutual trust and respect.”
