"Officers are leaving because the job doesn't pay enough for the grief it brings," Patrick Lynch, president of the New York City Police Benevolent Association, told United Press International.
By last month, 1,112 police officers had retired, a 44.6 percent increase from last year, according to the New York Police Department. Police officers quitting are on the rise -- 616 officers have quit -- an increase of 14.7 percent from 1999. In total 1,700 officers left the 40,000-member police force in 1999.
The drop in officers comes at the same time when the NYPD has been attracting fewer recruits. Since the NYPD requires at least a two-year college degree, officers are better educated than in the past, but they have more options than those who entered the force out of high school.
"Thousands take the police civil service exam but for the first time there weren't enough of the recruits to pass the mental, physical and background screening to fill a class at the police academy," PBA lead negotiator Bob Linn told UPI.
While Republican Mayor Rudolph Giuliani has touted New York City as the "safest, largest city in America" and said that the "city economy is stronger today than in decades," the pay of its 26,000 rank and file police officers has lagged behind those in other parts of New York or other places in the country.
"You'd think the police officers would have something to do with the crime rate falling," Linn said. "New York City's crime rate is 159th in the country for cities with a population over 100,000."
The entry-level salary for a NYPD officer is $31,305. According to the PBA, Long Island officers get 50 percent more, Yonkers get 27 percent more, New York State troopers get 17 percent more, Los Angeles officers get 20 percent more and Chicago officers get 12 percent more.
The police union has proposed that the city make a "market adjustment" for the officers to equal the current contract of police officers in Newark, N.J., who make 25 percent more in a "city comparable to New York City but with lower per capita income and a higher crime rate." NYPD officers currently make $31,305 the first year, $34,958 the third year, and 49,028 the 10th year.
In contrast, Newark, N.J., officers make $34,600 the first year, $49, 999 the third year, and $59,700 the 10th year. "New York City officers need the market increase, to make the pay more competitive with the market," Linn said. "Officer pay has not kept up with inflation for the past decade. The last contract raise was 2.5 percent lower than inflation."
According to the PBA, the police contract expired in July and negotiations with the city have stalled.
Mayor Giuliani's office did not return UPI's calls, but the PBA said the city has said that their proposal "would cost the city a fortune." The PBA estimates its market adjustment would cost the city $400 million and the city's 2.5 raise it proposed, would cost about $50 million.
Also making quitting even more attractive are a series of state laws passed in the last session.
One state law has contributed to the exodus of officers. It allows an officer to take the final year of pay and use it to determine the pension. Before, an officer used an average of the top three years' pay to determine the pension.
Many officers racked up a good deal of overtime working three major events this year, the Fourth of July Op-Sail, the United Nations Millennium Summit and the World Series - something that may not happen again in the near future.
A police officer, with 20 years on the job, makes about $55,000 a year and his final year and with overtime - the pension would be half the salary, about $30,000 a year, Linn said. The full pension can be collected 20 years after starting the job, there is no decrease in benefits for collecting the pension before age 65.
Another new state law, allows only five years in vesting for a pension. It used to be 15 years for a NYPD officer, however, a state law that required vesting of 10 years for state employees was cut in half to five years a couple of years ago.
The NYPD was supposed to have been included in that law, but it was inadvertently left out, but the five-year vesting law was signed by Gov. George Pataki last February.
A third law, allows police officers to have time spent in a war zone while in the military to be included in as time as an officer for pension vesting purposes.
State law has been traditionally generous to police and firefighters and once a benefit has been granted a benefit cannot be taken away according to the state constitution.
"Police officers and firefighters put their lives on the line and the tendency has been to treat then very well," Jim Walsh, director of the New York Senate's Civil Service and Pension Committee, told UPI. "They have a better chance of getting injured and they defend and help the public with their lives." (Reported by Alex Cukan in Albany, N.Y.)
(C) 2000 UPI All Rights Reserved.
© 2025 Newsmax. All rights reserved.