Four months ago, amNewYork reported on the desperate state of the NYPD’s headcount as the department experienced a “cop crunch” that had seen more than 300 officers, on average, retire or quit every month in 2025.
The crunch is finally beginning to subside, but there remains a long way for the NYPD to go to finally stop the exodus.
Let’s focus on the positives to start: The NYPD said Wednesday that it has hired 4,000 officers so far in 2025, including the 1,000 recruits whom Police Commissioner Jessica Tisch swore in that day at the NYPD Academy in College Point, Queens. If they all graduate, they will all join the force in June.
That follows an October commitment by outgoing Mayor Eric Adams for the city to hire 5,000 more officers to the force through the 2029 fiscal year. It would bring the department’s total headcount to about 40,000 by that time; it currently stands at just under 35,000.
The 4,000 new cops hired this year now have the department outpacing the number of retirees or resignees, the NYPD stated. Furthermore, the Police Benevolent Association, which represents the NYPD rank-and-file, reported that the number of officers quitting or retiring has slowed from a pace of over 300 officers per month to just 161 officers in November.
Still, there are warning signs for the NYPD. The PBA says that the slower rate of attrition, should it keep up, nonetheless puts the NYPD at risk of losing 1,700 more officers by the time the 1,000 new NYPD recruits installed on Wednesday graduate in six months. Do the math, and that projects a 700-officer shortfall by June.
Police Commissioner Jessica Tisch has implemented significant changes to the NYPD recruitment effort, which has seen a surge of new candidates join the department over the past year. However, these changes have focused more on qualifications.
Little has been done to address the elephant in the room: The annual salaries for NYPD officers, which start at about $61,000 for a rookie and rise in 5 ½ years to $126,000. Those figures are still far lower than their peers in suburban police departments, where salaries after 5 years of service rise to nearly $200,000.
Recruitment and reducing the officer workload will only go so far. NYPD officers are struggling with affordability like everyone else. They need a raise, and it will be up to the Mamdani administration to make it happen.
The new mayor cannot afford to ignore this problem. The city’s public safety rests largely on the shoulders of the NYPD. If there aren’t enough officers to patrol the subways and streets every day, the blue line will shatter — and chaos will take hold.
