NYPD to Move 300 Into Top Detective Slots

By REUVEN BLAU

The Police Department plans to promote 200 additional Detectives to Second Grade and 100 more to First Grade within the next few months to help bolster those thinning ranks, according to the Detectives' Endowment Association.

MICHAEL J. PALLADINO: An incentive to stay.

The number of Detectives has dropped from 7,182 in January 2001 to approximately 5,200 this month, the DEA noted.

DEA President Michael J. Palladino welcomed the news. Police Commissioner Raymond W. Kelly, he said, told him about the promotion plan during an Aug. 25 phone conversation.

'A Boost for Morale'

"This is a big boost for morale within the rank of Detective," he said in an interview three days later. "I think the Commissioner recognizes and wants to reward Detectives for their contributions and the impact that they've made with respect to the overall drop in crime that the city has realized."

The union president pointed out that roughly 3,100 Detectives have left the job over the past five years. The reduced headcount has created challenges for the department, which has established a counterterrorism bureau primarily staffed by Detectives.

Mr. Palladino also noted that despite crime dropping by 22 percent over the same period, the job of Detective has expanded. They now handle identity theft cases and counter-terrorism duties, he said. "Yet the promotions have not caught up with the number of retirements," he added.

The newly promoted officers will bring the percentage of Detectives in the top two grades up from 14 percent to 22 percent, according to the DEA. In contrast, in the 1970s Mr. Palladino said that 38 percent of the total Detective complement was in the two higher grades. Back then there were a total of 2,600 Detectives, of which roughly 1,000 were in the higher grades.

There are presently 4,400 Third-Grade Detectives, 607 Second-Grade Detectives, and 194 First-Grade Detectives, the DEA leader said. "We were reaching dangerously low levels," Mr. Palladino asserted.

Money Was the Issue

In June, Mr. Palladino said he met with Mr. Kelly to discuss the issue. "Commissioner Kelly embraced the idea," Mr. Palladino remarked, referring to the added promotions. "However, the stumbling block appeared to be the funding."

So Mr. Palladino took his case directly to City Hall. He successfully argued that the NYPD needs to promote more Detectives to higher grades to help retain veteran investigators. "Eighty-six percent of Detectives will never get promoted for the hard work that they do," he pointed out. "So they are reluctantly leaving the NYPD and going to the private-sector, where in the post-9/11 world they are being welcomed with open arms."

There's no precise timetable for increasing the number of Detectives in the upper grades, but the department has been making promotions on a monthly basis. It is unclear whether the city boosted the NYPD's budget or the department shifted funds from another area to cover the cost. An NYPD spokesman declined to comment.

"I'm happy to see that my pleas to the department and City Hall did not fall on deaf ears," Mr. Palladino said.