More than 2,500 New York Police Department officers (NYPD) have left the force in 2023, with many attributing it to being forced to work a significant number of overtime hours due to staffing issues.
Pension data cited by The New York Post revealed that 2,516 officers have left the New York force so far this year.
Police Benevolent Association President Patrick Hendry said officers have been leaving the force for years without being replaced, leaving the remaining officers forced to work “inhumane amounts of forced overtime.”
Additionally,1,040 officers have quit before working the 20 years required to receive their full pensions.
That is more than double the number who did so in 2020.
“The workload is a leading factor driving people away from the job,” Hendry said.
“If the NYPD is going to survive these staffing reductions, it cannot just keep squeezing cops for more hours.”
Earlier this year, Lynch warned, “The NYPD staffing emergency is approaching the point of no return.”
“We are losing cops to better pay and benefits in other policing jobs almost every day,” Lynch added.
In 2021, Florida Gov Ron DeSantis gave $5,000 bonuses to officers relocating to the sunshine state, a sharp contrast to the anti-cop sentiment of blue cities like New York.
“If you’re not being treated well, we’ll treat you better here,” DeSantis said at the time. “You can fill important needs for us, and we’ll compensate you as a result.”
Another officer said he plans to retire this summer as soon as he hits 20 years at the department.
“I keep in contact with the guys that I was in the police academy with, and we all have the same notion,” said the officer.
“I think maybe 95% of us are planning on leaving.”
Officers who retire after 20 can collect 50% of their final average salary as a pension.
Just The News reported: The department has more than 33,500 uniformed officers, data shows, but New York City budget cuts will whittle the number of officers to 29,000 by the end of the fiscal year 2025, even as crime appears to be on the rise after the COVID-19 pandemic.
Earlier this month, New York City Democratic Mayor Eric Adams announced he would be making significant cuts to the NYPD to deal with the illegal immigration crisis in the city.
The Daily Fetched reported:
Under Adams’ new budget cuts, there will be a complete freeze on police hiring, dropping the number of NYPD officers to below 30,000.
The city’s Education Department will also be affected, with the budget slashed by more than $1 billion over the next two years.
“No city should be left to handle a national humanitarian crisis largely on its own, and without the significant and timely support we need from Washington, D.C. Today’s budget will be only the beginning,” Adams said.
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