NYPD blues

[Guest Wolfeymole]

The thin blue line is getting thinner

 

 

“BEING a cop was a great job in the late '80s. It paid well. Now, I would never encourage people to do it,” confides a veteran New York police officer. For the past couple of years the New York Police Department (NYPD) has been having trouble attracting recruits, largely because of the paltry $25,100 starting salary decreed by a state arbitrator in 2005. Previously, annual pay had started at $40,000. It took a little while for NYPD to feel the impact as it had a big pool to draw from, but now recruitment is drying up.

 

The NYPD has shrunk by 5,000 from a high of 41,000 in 2001. The good news is that crime continues to fall; the bad news is that this may not be sustainable. Crime is down 25% since 2001 and 75% since 1993. Operation Impact, which floods troubled areas with police, has been credited with the continuing improvement. When two-thirds of recent police academy graduates were sent out to a dozen or so notorious zones, crime went down by about 30% there. But without a steady supply of new recruits, Operation Impact could be in serious danger. Ray Kelly, the police commissioner, has assigned all rookies to the operation to ensure that the flooding strategy continues.

 

The most experienced officers, too, are leaving the force. Huge numbers were hired in the late 1980s. They can retire after 20 years on half-pay, and most do; about 3,000 leave each year. Around 40% of today's force has been hired since Michael Bloomberg became mayor in 2002. Eugene O'Donnell, a former cop and a professor at John Jay College of Criminal Justice, says the NYPD is demoralised and is on the verge of terminal decline.

 

Mr Bloomberg's recent calls to cut a further 1,000 officers could result in the smallest police force for 16 years. The NYPD points out that it would have been unable to fill those jobs anyway. But the police union fears that cuts may strain the force to breaking point. Paul Browne, the deputy police commissioner, says the NYPD “is keeping all the balls in the air”, but conceded it cannot continue indefinitely. An arbitrator is expected to come up with a new salary limit later this month.

 

But it's not just about the money. Greg Ridgeway of RAND, a think-tank, points out that Los Angeles, San Diego and Pittsburgh pay their cops double the New York rate but are also having recruiting problems; the value of the NYPD brand, he adds, should not be underestimated. Using it, the force is recruiting at military bases and college campuses all over the country. But a bit more cash would help.

 

 

Sourced from The Economist

Edited April 17, 2008 by maynardvdm

[jo123]

Hi

 

i agree with you with the force going down crime will go up which will cause crime to go up so hard working people get rob it is just not right the goverment should do something about this problem and sort it out before it is to late.:)

[Mara]

Somehow society seem to have it's priorities/sense of worth a bit odd. Surely police officers, firefighters, ambulance attendants etc should be valued for what they are - both essential and critical to our society and paid accordingly.

 

(Not that a plumber isn't important but at $60 an hour nor an electrician at $80 an hour - but he/she doesn't risk their lives each time they head out to work.

[Guest Wolfeymole]

It all comes down to $/£ or whatever currency locale you are in and the local governing body.

[jo123]

it does but still there do have a hard time every time they are on the job