About Half Planned Number
Next Police Class Coming Up Short

By REUVEN BLAU

Police Department personnel officials have projected that the NYPD will only have 700 to 800 candidates available to fill the Police Officer class scheduled to begin training this summer, THE CHIEF-LEADER has learned.

RAYMOND W. KELLY: Plagued by low pay.

That estimated figure would be roughly half the projected 1,500 officers the NYPD had initially planned on appointing, and will place the department further below its authorized headcount of 37,828 officers.

Kelly: Lasting Impact

Police Commissioner Raymond W. Kelly has repeatedly blamed the reduced starting salary as the primary reason the NYPD is having major problems attracting candidates. Under a highly-assailed wage award issued by a state arbitration panel in 2005, new recruits earn $25,100 during their six months in training. Throughout that time they take home roughly $600 every two weeks.

"I've always had concerns about the salary," Mr. Kelly told reporters on May 11. "It can impact on the safety of the city for a long time to come."

PATRICK J. LYNCH: Situation will worsen.

The Patrolmen's Benevolent Association also argued that the slashed starting pay would have a long-term effect. "The increase in crime that is sure to follow the personnel crisis at the NYPD will impact the tax base, tourism, business growth, the real-estate market and our quality of life," asserted PBA President Patrick J. Lynch in a statement issued May 18. "Failure to correct this problem will put every major economic gain the city has made in harm's way. Ignoring this problem may well be the single largest failure of the Bloomberg administration, and leaves our city vulnerable to massive damage in the future. This is pattern bargaining's sad legacy."

Doing More With Fewer

The NYPD has lost roughly 3,000 officers annually over the past several years due to retirement and officers transferring to higher-paying jurisdictions, and has not replaced all of them. Despite the reduction in staff, statistics have shown that the NYPD has continued to reduce crime throughout the city, aside from an increase in homicides last year.

The department last week officially declined to discuss the projected figures for the upcoming class. "We really can't provide an estimate," said Paul J. Browne, the NYPD's chief spokesman. "At this point it's too early to predict."

But two high-ranking sources indicated that the department estimates the new class will include only 700 or 800 recruits.

In addition, filing figures for the upcoming June exam are down from the same four-month period last year. In all, 20,951 applied before the May 15 deadline, down from the 23,563 that signed up in 2006.

Reaching Outside State

Further compounding the problem is that typically only 1 out of every 10 candidates who apply is actually hired. The NYPD, however, administered 13 out-of-state exams in 2006, which will likely generate several hundred additional candidates.

But the reduced starting pay has also led to an increased number of recruits dropping out before completing their nearly seven months of instruction. The class that graduated last winter had a 15-percent attrition rate, up from the prior average of 7 percent, Mr. Kelly said.

The current class is facing a similar problem, NYPD figures reveal. As of earlier this month, of the 1,357 officers who entered the Police Academy in January, 209 had already left, the NYPD said.

Veteran officers are also leaving in droves, according to the PBA. "The critical recruitment and retention problem is only getting worse because other local police departments are paying so much more than the NYPD," Mr. Lynch said. "In the first four months of this year, resignations have increased by 15 percent over last year, with 359 fully trained police officers - enough to staff two full precinct houses - quitting for better jobs."

Seeking Exit Visas

In a strange switch of traditional stances, the PBA has worked to force the NYPD to allow its members to leave for other departments, even though that means helping them leave the union.

Last summer, the PBA sued the NYPD, charging that it was purposely withholding the information in an attempt to prevent the officers from switching to the better-paying Port Authority.

But in January, a State Appellate Division panel reversed a lower-court decision ordering the NYPD to release the personnel records of 35 of its officers seeking to transfer to the Port Authority Police Department.

The cops stand to earn 50 percent more by working for the PAPD, which has a maximum salary of $90,000 after five years on the job. By contrast, NYPD cops currently receive $59,588 after 5-1/2 years' service.

Through an odd twist, city cops have been blocked from transferring due to the NYPD's strict policy limiting the release of their personnel files, while their counterparts in the FDNY have had no such problems. The NYPD's and FDNY's conflicting transfer policies are likely related to their drastically different attrition rates.

'City Can't Compete'

"New York City just can't compete in this job market when virtually every police department, large and small, within an hour's drive of the city is paying between $20,000 and $30,000 a year more at top pay than the NYPD," Mr. Lynch said.

In an attempt to boost the NYPD's recruitment efforts, city negotiators have twice offered to raise the starting pay for new cops. Mr. Lynch has soundly rejected those proposals, primarily due to the concessions those deals demanded of new hires in other areas, such as time off.

The prolonged arbitration process had bottled up Mayor Bloomberg's plan, announced last March, to hire an additional 800 new cops and 400 administrative workers for the NYPD. Those officers would have been used to supplement the department's authorized headcount of approximately 37,000 officers.

The real headcount is currently closer to 35,000 when considering the number of officers on personal, sick, and terminal leave as well as those placed on modified assignment, said John F. Driscoll, the president of the Captains' Endowment Association, who has worked in the department's applicant review unit.

No Relief in Sight

In early 2006, Mr. Kelly said he was hopeful the salary would be increased by the time that summer's class started training. "I think prospective candidates will see that it's a real possibility," he told reporters after testifying at a City Council hearing.

But the arbitration process involving the PBA and the Bloomberg administration has stalled due to several legal issues that have been raised by the union. Some familiar with the process are now predicting that a new award that could substantially raise the starting pay will not be issued until next year.

"We've done everything we can to resolve this, and stand ready to resolve it prospectively," said Labor Commissioner James F. Hanley.