Size Still Uncertain: NYPD Ready to Fill Its January Class

Size Still Uncertain
NYPD Ready to Fill Its January Class

By REUVEN BLAU

While the reduced starting salary continues to pose a challenge for the NYPD to recruit officers, the department has attracted more than 1,000 candidates to help fill its upcoming January class, the latest filing figures suggest.

RAYMOND KELLY: 'We'll maintain standards.' In all, 3,733 candidates passed the June 17 Police Officer exam and 4,867 individuals took the Oct. 28 test. The NYPD is also scheduled to administer 13 out-of-state exams this year, which will likely generate several hundred candidates for the upcoming class.

Screening Narrows Field

Typically, however, only 1 out of every 10 candidates who apply is actually hired. Aware of that reality, the NYPD's top recruitment official said that it's too early to say if the department will be able to meet its expanded hiring goals.

"The dust has not settled on the exam in October," said George W. Anderson, the NYPD's Deputy Chief of Personnel. "It would be premature to give an estimate on how many people we'll have."

He noted that the department will look to hire additional officers from previous rosters. "We have other people in the pot from prior lists," he remarked.

Police Commissioner Raymond W. Kelly last week declined to detail how many officers the department was looking to hire for its January class. The NYPD's July class of 1,511 new recruits came 231 candidates short of meeting its target for new Police Officers to bolster the department's ability to fight crime and prevent terrorism even as the city's population continues to increase.

'Won't Sacrifice Quality'

"I don't know what we'll hit," Mr. Kelly said last week, referring to the approaching class. "But the message has gone forth very clearly that we are not going to sacrifice quality in any way, shape, or form."

The Patrolmen's Benevolent Association has charged that to fill recent classes, the department relaxed many of its standards, including dropping its 2.0 grade-point average requirement as well as its residency and driver's license requisites.

Mr. Kelly categorically denied that was the case, asserting, "We are going to maintain our usual high standards, and whatever we hire, we hire."

The PBA and the other police unions contend that the department has struggled to attract candidates and has been forced to recruit out of state because local candidates are dissuaded by the low starting salary of $28,900 and maximum pay of $59,588 after 5-1/2 years.

One Area They Agree

"The source of the NYPD's recruiting and retention problem is no mystery: the pay is too low when you join and it's too low when you reach top pay," PBA President Patrick J. Lynch has said. The contract dispute will once again be settled by a state arbitration panel.

Mr. Kelly has called the starting pay a "disgrace," and has said it is making it a challenge for the NYPD to attract new officers.

The NYPD's recruitment difficulties come as police forces across the nation have struggled to attract new officers. "We are aware of the trend," Mr. Anderson said. "I think everybody is engaged in the same kind of effort to find new ways to market law enforcement as a profession."

Bill Naber, a criminal justice consultant based in Los Angeles, said that many police departments have begun offering incentives to attract new recruits, including interest-free housing loans and signing bonuses up to $5,000. "It's a common practice," he said.

According to Mr. Naber, only 60 percent of the police forces across the country are fully staffed. "The Iraq war has drained off a lot of candidates that we would normally see joining," he said. "They are having to backfill with other kinds of folks."