NYPD unable to recruit, retain enough officers to keep New York City safe: union boss

3,701 members of the New York Police Department left the force last year. 1,746 quit and 1,955 retired, according to data from the NYC Police Pension Fund and the drop off marks the largest NYPD staff exit in decades while major crime in the city soars.

"The NYPD is playing a dangerous game by refusing to acknowledge and address its recruitment and retention crisis," President of the New York City Police Benevolent Association Patrick Lynch said, per Fox News. "New Yorkers are demanding more police presence in their neighborhoods and on the subway, but we just don’t have the staffing to provide it consistently."

"Many talented, dedicated recruits don’t want to raise their hand for the NYPD because they’ll be paid better and treated better at almost any other police department," Lynch said. "New York City needs to make a major investment in paying and treating its police officers like professionals. It can’t afford not to." 

Last month, the Police Benevolent Association posted that the police force had a recruitment goal of 1,200 but only saw 543 new recruits, falling far short of their 2,500 goal. As of January 11, 2023 the NYPD has a headcount of 33,822 members and the force is budgeted to employ 35,030.

In 2020, 3,315 NYPD officers left the force and 2,811 left in 2021. 

The 2022  dropoff is "the largest figure recorded in the last 20 years," according to Fox News, as 3,846 members quit in 2002.

As The Post Millennial has reported, low morale has been cited by many outgoing officers as their reason for leaving the force, oftentimes before they have reached full pension.

Under Democrat Mayor Eric Adams major crime offenses in New York, such as assault and robbery, have continued to soar and were up 21 percent compared to 2021. 

According to local news, there were 433 murders in NYC in 2022, down slightly from 488 murders in 2021. But Adams' NYC murder rate is still noticeably higher than 2019's 318 murders. 

A lecturer at John Jay College of Criminal Justice and former NYPD office, Jillian Snider, said the NYPD "started seeing abandonment from policing in 2019" but that the exodus increased when "the rhetoric around defund the police hit the news."