With Mayor Michael Bloomberg slated to present the fiscal year 2014 executive budget this week, Council Member Elizabeth Crowley, joined by 27 other Council Members, urged the Mayor to increase uniformed headcount in the Police Department and curtail overtime spending.
“The use of overtime spending should not be used as a long term solution to compensate for fewer officers,” the Council Members wrote in a letter delivered Monday.
Since 2001, the uniformed headcount for the NYPD has been reduced by more than 6,000, and overtime spending has increased from just over $200 million to nearly $600 million. Current budget projections call for almost $500 million for future years.
“The increased use of overtime clearly indicates that the NYPD needs more police officers,” said Council Member Elizabeth Crowley. “The NYPD has been given increasing responsibilities, including the department’s growing counter terrorism unit, and we must pass a budget that gives the NYPD the resources and officers needed to keep our City safe and secure.”
Full text of the letter:
April 29, 2013
Hon. Michael R. Bloomberg
Office of the Mayor
City Hall
New York, NY 10007
Re: Police Department Uniformed Headcount
Dear Mayor Bloomberg:
As you prepare the fiscal year 2014 executive budget, we write to urge you to hire more police officers in order to keep our city safe and to reduce the escalating and excessive overtime costs incurred by the Police Department. Over the last eleven years, the police force has been reduced by more than 6,000 officers and overtime spending has more than doubled. It is especially urgent to allocate funding for additional officers in the fiscal year 2014 executive budget as two twenty-year cohorts are about to retire. The Police Department spent $586.1 million on overtime expenses during the fiscal year 2012 budget alone. Budget projections indicate that the Department plans to spend almost $500 million in yearly overtime spending for the foreseeable future.
At the New York City Council’s Public Safety Committee hearing on March 12, 2013, Police Commissioner Kelly stated that approximately 40% of the Department’s overtime budget is for planned events. We believe that using overtime to fund such a large percentage of planned events amounts to a fiscally wasteful use of overtime spending. Consistent overtime expenditures indicate the need for additional officers. The use of overtime spending should not be used as a long term solution to compensate for fewer officers.
By hiring more police officers and implementing the voluntary vacation pay program, in which police officers may choose to work through vacation days for straight-time compensation, the city will be safer and the Department will run more efficiently. We strongly believe that the Department’s overtime budget is unnecessarily high and that hiring additional police officers is the best way to reduce such spending.
Let us not miss this budgeting opportunity to change course and hire more police officers and curtail overtime spending.
Sincerely,
Elizabeth S. Crowley, Peter Vallone, Jr., Jumaane D. Williams, Daniel Dromm, G. Oliver Koppell, Peter A. Koo, Vincent J. Gentile, Margaret S. Chin, James Vacca, James S. Oddo, Jessica Lappin, Karen Koslowitz, Ydanis A. Rodriguez, Fernando Cabrera, Lewis A. Fidler, Donovan Richards, Diana Reyna, Inez E. Dickens, Letitia James, Mathieu Eugene, Stephen Levin, Leroy G. Comrie, Mark Weprin, Ruben Wills, James G. Van Bramer, David G. Greenfield, Michael C. Nelson, Helen Diane Foster.
