New York pays more police in retirement than to patrol our streets — yet pols do nothing to address our skyrocketing pension costs
Last week, Mayor Bloomberg scolded the NYPD’s critics, from The New York Times to the Democratic mayoral candidates.
The mayor said that "the attacks most often come from those who play no constructive role in keeping our city safe."
The mayor said that "the attacks most often come from those who play no constructive role in keeping our city safe."
The mayor is right — but there’s another threat to the NYPD’s crime-fighting success, too. We now have more retired cops than active police officers, and the multibillion-dollar bill for their pension and health benefits harms our ability to hire new ones.
In December 2001, a month before Bloomberg took office, New York had 39,297 cops. Today, the city has 34,510 to protect us — and by the time the mayor leaves office in eight months, we’ll have 34,483 — a cut of nearly 5,000 pairs of eyes.
Yet spending has increased. During Bloomberg’s final year, city will spend $8.7 billion on the police department, nearly double the 2002 figure and more than three times the rate of inflation.
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