De Blasio: Nearly 1,300 New NYPD Officers To Be Hired In City Budget
NEW YORK (CBSNewYork/AP) -- New York City is set to hire nearly 1,300 new police officers as part of its yearly budget agreement, Mayor Bill de Blasio said late Monday.
The mayor said 1,297 total new officers will be hired as part of the $78.5 billion budget. A total of $170 million will be directed toward hiring the officers.
They will be focused on two new efforts – a new counterterrorism effort focused on critical response, and what de Blasio called a "pioneering" neighborhood policing strategy.
The plan honors a proposal put forth by the City Council over Mayor Bill de Blasio's initial objections.
The new hires will join a force of about 34,500 uniformed officers.
Additionally, the budget authorizes the hiring of more than 400 administrative aides to take over desk jobs currently filled by police officers. Those officers will then be freed up to be deployed on the street for increased community policing, the official said.
Cuts to police overtime will offset some of the costs of the new hires, the mayor said.
"These are targeted investments that we know that will make a huge difference in the future of our city," de Blasio said.
According to an earlier report in The Wall Street Journal, de Blasio agreed to the expansion, which he'd previously opposed, in exchange for concessions such the caps on overtime pay for officers.
Councilmembers told CBS2 Political Marcia Kramer that more officers were needed.
"I do think that many of our commands do need the extra support by an increase in the workforce," said Bronx City Councilwoman Vanessa Gibson (D-16th).
"We don't have enough police officers. We desperately need more police officers," added Queens Councilman Eric Ulrich (R-32nd), "and the only way we're going to keep New York City the safest big city in America is if we put more cops on the street."
The city has seen an uptick in shootings in recent months. The addition of new cops would allow the NYPD to boost the force in certain neighborhoods.
"We very much focus on where crime is occurring, when it's occurring, who's doing it," police Commissioner Bill Bratton told reporters, including WCBS 880's Peter Haskell.
Bratton also pointed to terrorism. Recent arrests of suspects believed to be inspired by ISIS illustrate the dangers.
"We talked about the idea of permanently creating a cadre of officers in our counterterrorism unit that would focus on that new emerging threat," the commissioner said.
Richard Aborn of the Citizens Crime Commission of New York City said the department can only build trust with more feet on the street.
"That's a very, very smart thing to do. That will take us a long way to repairing the breach with the community, but you need cops to do it," Aborn said. "I think a couple of hundred would help. A thousand would really help. We are far from 40,000. We do have a long way to go to get back to the level of cops we had back before the recession."
The city's police officers union earlier had been looking at a potential compromise with skepticism, 1010 WINS' Sonia Rincon reported. Patrolmen's Benevolent Association President Pat Lynch told 1010 WINS overtime cutbacks are unrealistic, even with 1,000 new hires.
The budget also included a $1.4 million fund to pay bail for poor defendants, City Council Speaker Melissa Mark-Viverito said in the budget announcement. If you are charged with a nonviolent misdemeanor and bail is set at less than $2,000, you can borrow the money to get out of jail until your case is called.
"Even when bail is $500 or less, only 15 percent can afford to pay it immediately," Mark-Viverito said.
The bail fund is a pet project of Speaker Mark-Viverito, who said it can cost $100,000 a year to house an inmate on Rikers Island. In 2013, there were more than 16,000 who could not make bail of $2,000 or less.
"There are too many individuals who are detainees on Rikers Island for low-level, nonviolent offenses, and they're there because they simply cannot make bail," Councilwoman Gibson said.
But some councilmembers do not agree with the idea.
"We shouldn't be using the taxpayers' money to bail people out of jail. It's not an appropriate use of the taxpayers' money," Ulrich said. "I can find many other ways – better ways – to spend that money."
Further, de Blasio said, the budget will devote significant funds to the School Renewal Program – including a total of $12.7 million will be devoted toward extended learning time, and $2.2 million for school-based health charters, according to a news release.
The budget will also devote $39 million to libraries, the mayor said.
"This will allow us to get universal six-day library service all over New York City," de Blasio said.
The budget also adds 50,000 summer youth jobs, and more than 5,000 new units of senior housing within five years, Mark-Viverito said. The budget further doubles the amount of funding directed toward the Mayor's Office of Veterans Affairs, she said.
Also included will be $1.8 million to expand the city's Emergency Food Assistance Program, $1.14 million to fund 80 new crossing guards, and $6.6 million for 50 new physical education teachers at city schools, the news release said.
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