Mayor Adams defends keeping NYPD budget flat amid crime spike

Mayor Adams on Monday defended striking a city government budget deal that keeps NYPD spending effectively flat, arguing that the department has plenty of resources that it’s not using the right way.

“We must first utilize the resources that we have. I cannot emphasize enough: We were not deploying our police the way they should have been deployed,” Adams said in an appearance on Fox 5 when asked why he agreed to not beef up the NYPD budget.

The $101.1 billion municipal budget agreement reached Friday between Adams and the City Council for the next fiscal year earmarks about $5.5 billion for the NYPD, matching last year’s police spending levels.

The New York Post exclusively reported Saturday that over 1,500 officers have either resigned or retired in 2022 – the largest exodus of officers since the statistics have been available. The 1,596 total departures from the police department represents a 38% spike compared to the same period in 2021, when 1,159 cops called it a career, and a 46% increase from 2020, when 1,092 left the force by the same point.

Asked Monday morning by “Good Day New York” host Rosanna Scotto if those figures “concern” him, Adams replied, “No, it does not.”

“[The] New York City Police Department is an amazing career. I know it first-hand, and we are going to find young men and women who are going to want to be a member of the New York City Finest,” the retired NYPD captain and former transit cop continued on Fox 5.

Adams touted the NYPD’s “amazing recruitment campaign,” adding: “This is a great opportunity to diversify the department. So no, people will always want to join the New York City Police Department. It’s one of the best careers you could have in the city.”

In addition, Adams argued that the reduction in police isn’t a bad thing because the police department has more effectively used NYPD officers since he took office. “You don’t see five, six police officers standing at the corner together; you’re seeing us deploy our police properly,” he said.

Asked why the budget deal did not include more funding for funding for the NYPD amid heightened crime, Adams stated: “We must first utilize the resources we have. I cannot emphasize enough, we were not deploying our police the way they should have been deployed,” said the mayor. “I’m going to deploy New York’s taxpayers’ money correctly.”