NEW YORK (1010 WINS) -- More police officers are leaving the NYPD than at any time in the past 20 years, the head of the union representing the city's police officers told 1010 WINS on Monday.
The march out the door at the NYPD is occurring at a clip of 339 officers a month. By year’s end, more than 4,000 officers will have left the department—the largest number since an attrition of more than 3,800 in 2002, said Patrick Lynch, the president of the Police Benevolent Association, which represents NYPD officers.
“Three thousand have quit or retired so far this year—the most since Sept. 11,” Lynch said.
The number of officers leaving prior to reaching 20 years for a full city pension has nearly doubled at just over 1,400.
“What’s scary about this number, it’s not just police officers leaving for retirement,” Lynch said. “Almost half of the departures are leaving for other, better-paying jurisdictions—younger police officers who have not come to retirement age yet.”
Lynch noted that many officers are jumping ship for other agencies like MTA police and New York state police, where they're paid 30% more to do similar jobs in the same facilities as NYPD officers.
Lynch is also skeptical of parts of the new transit safety plan—dubbed “Cops, Cameras and Care”—that was unveiled by Mayor Eric Adams and Gov. Kathy Hochul on Saturday amid increasing concerns about subway crime, including unprovoked assaults.
The new plan includes an additional 1,200 police overtime shifts in the subway each day.
“We don’t have the staffing to sustain it,” Lynch said.
He also questioned whether private security guards hired by the MTA to crack down on fare evasion can adequately protect the public.
And even as more officers are put in the subway system, not enough are filling academy classes, Lynch said. “It’s short-sighted for the city not to fill an academy class, not to hire police officers and not to pay us as professionals.”
Lynch said the city’s crime spike requires all hands on deck.
“It affects the tax base, it affects people visiting here, people working here, people going back to work after COVID on the subway,” he said.
The NYPD responded in a statement, saying: “The NYPD regularly monitors attrition and plans accordingly to address the loss of officers who retire or leave the Department for a variety of reasons. Year to date we have hired approximately 2000 individuals including 600 individuals who were hired last Wednesday and who have already begun their training at the Police Academy.”
Asked at a teleconference Sunday about the 20-year high for attrition, Adams said, “We don't have a deficit of people who want to come on the police department.”
The mayor said there were large class sizes 20 years ago and that those officers are now leaving, contributing to the sizable 2022 number.
“We have just an overwhelming abundance of young men and women who are excited about being a member of the greatest police department in this country,” Adams said. “And we know when you have these large classes that reach their 20-year, their 21st year, you get these large turnovers.”
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