The NYPD is on pace to see more than 4,000 cops retire or resign this year – the most since the post-9/11 exodus, data obtained by The Post show.
Pension fund figures reveal 3,054 officers have filed to leave the department so far this year — 42% more than the 2,155 who exited at the same time last year through Sept. 30.
If the pace continues in the fourth quarter, the NYPD stands to lose 4,072 cops this year. That’s even higher than the crippling attrition the department suffered in 2002, when 3,846 officers left the force following Sept. 11, 2001 terrorist attacks on the World Trade Center, where 24 cops were killed.
Union leaders warn the mass exits have created a “staffing emergency.”
To get enough cops on the streets as the census falls to about 34,000 cops — down from the 40,200 peak in 2000 — the NYPD is on pace to spend $600 million on uniformed staff overtime in the new fiscal year that began in July. That’s 61% percent more than the $372 million budgeted for OT, according to figures from the Independent Budget Office.
NYPD overtime spending had already ballooned to $670 million in fiscal year 2022, which ended June 30 — up 57% from the $426 million spent the year before, when COVID caused the cancellation of many police-heavy public events.
OT totaled $721 million in 2020, the year of the George Floyd riots. Before that, in the pre-pandemic years of FY 2018 and 2019, uniformed OT spending was $589 million and $599 million, respectively.
“New York has become Dodge City — and those who can are getting out of Dodge. And not just the cops,” said Michael Alcazar, a retired NYPD detective and an adjunct professor at John Jay College of Criminal Justice.
For New York’s Finest, surging crime, bail reform, anti-cop hostility, the defund-the-police movement, and battles over the city’s vaccination mandate are signs that it’s time to go.
A 30-year-old Queens cop quit his “dream job” this summer and hasn’t looked back. He took a private-sector gig after only seven years on the force.
“I have no regrets about leaving,” he told The Post. “From what I hear from the many officers I still speak to, the NYPD has actually somehow become worse in just the few months I’ve been gone. I didn’t even know that was possible. The job has become unsustainable for a lot of people — financially, mentally, everything about it.
“Officers want to have pride in what we do, but pride only goes so far when you’re constantly being beat down and treated like a child by the department’s incompetent and ignorant leaders and disrespected by the public on a daily basis. When the whole system is working against you, when you can’t cover your bills, and never see your family, you start to ask ‘Why am I doing this anymore?’”
The wave of departures began after the police-involved killing of George Floyd in Minnesota on May 25, 2020. Outrage over Floyd’s death triggered calls by Democrats to defund the police along with nationwide protests, and a number of NYPD officers became collateral damage.
Ticked-off members are taking other civil service tests and heading to police departments in Long Island and out of state, or joining the better-paying Port Authority PD.
Base starting pay for NYPD cops is currently about $42,000 — and max pay after 5.5 years is $86,000. Long Island officers’ wages nearly double, to $155,600, after 11.5 years of service.
And the men and women in blue are leaving a lot of green on the table as they flee.
The number of cops hanging up their handcuffs early — before reaching 20 years for a full city pension — has soared 61% this year from the year before (1,426 from 888).
“We keep ringing the alarm bell louder and louder, and every month the numbers get worse,” said Police Benevolent Association President Patrick Lynch. “We have gone from a staffing problem, to a staffing crisis, and now to a full-blown staffing emergency. The city must immediately address the low pay and punishing work schedules that are driving cops out.”
City Hall referred inquires to the NYPD.
“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. On Wednesday, the NYPD hired 600 individuals who have already begun their training at the Police Academy,” a department spokesperson said.
The NYPD has hired 1,982 recruits this year, but even after they graduate from the police academy, they would fill less than half of the 4,000 new openings.
QUITTIN’ TIME
Annual yearly attrition numbers
- 2022 — 3,054 (Through Sept. 30)
- 2021 — 2,811
- 2020 — 3,315
- 2019 — 2,342
- 2018 — 2,006
- 2017 — 2,027
- 2016 — 2,103
- 2015 — 2,135
- 2014 — 1,987
- 2013 — 2,355
- 2012 — 2,003
- 2011 — 2,149
- 2010 — 2,010
- 2009 — 1,330
- 2008 — 1,910
- 2007 — 2,756
- 2006 — 3,189
- 2005 — 3,400
- 2004 — 3,397
- 2003 — 3,015
- 2002 — 3,846
Source: NYPD pension stats
WORKIN’ OT
NYPD uniformed overtime expenditures over the previous five fiscal years. FY 2022 ended on June 30, 2022:
- 2022 — $670,035,013
- 2021 — $425,558,041
- 2020 — $721,394,734
- 2019 — $599,205,790
- 2018 — $589,293,350
Source: NYC Independent Budget Office
