NEW YORK – The New York City Police will add 900 new recruits to their first training since the pandemic began.
The class, which the NYPD noted will begin in November, will put all 900 officers on the police force by mid-2021.
“With the new class, the NYPD will be able to ensure public safety as the city continues to face a perfect storm driven by a pandemic,” Police Commissioner Dermot Shea said in a statement. “At this difficult financial time, the Department is grateful for the mayor’s leadership.”
However, the new class is considerably smaller compared to last year, when 2,700 new recruits were added to the police force, and according to Shea, the lower number is due to an increase in retirements among officers and the decrease in department budget.
The policeman was in an MTA subway station and was confronted by some students after he was seen without a mask.
“Due to budget cuts and attrition, this is lower than the approximately 36,900 uniform service members at this time last year,” Shea noted.
The move comes after the New York City Council approved a budget cut of $ 1 billion of the NYPD’s $ 6 billion operating budget in June, when the police reform movement that emerged after George Floyd’s assassination lobbied and demanded a cut of at least $ 1 billion from the New York Police budget.
The New York Police Officers Benevolent Association (PBA), the city’s largest union of NYPD agents, reiterated that the class of 900 new recruits is not enough in a statement on social media.
“These new recruits will not hit the streets until the middle of next year, and yet we will still be seriously downsized as we fight massive spikes in shootings, a rising murder rate, and growing disorder of all kinds,” PBA wrote in a statement on Friday.
Police Commissioner Dermot Shea noted that officers will join the police force in mid-2021.
– .
