I’D SHRINK THE COPS
Council speaker backs ‘premise’ of reducing size, scope of NYPD
City Council Speaker Adrienne Adams said Tuesday she agrees with the “premise” that the city’s budget should prioritize community investments like housing and mental health services over funding to the NYPD — a contentious concept that recently divided the Council’s Progressive Caucus and ultimately led to several members dropping out of it.
Adams, who was speaking to WNYC’s Brian Lehrer on Tuesday morning, noted she did not sign onto the pledge that split the caucus, but when asked if she agrees with its general premise, she said: “I would agree with that one. Yep.”
Her position opens the door to a potential showdown with Mayor Adams, who has made cutting crime a cornerstone of his administration and supports keeping the NYPD well funded.
The pledge states that the caucus will “do everything we can to reduce the size and scope of the NYPD ... and prioritize and fund alternative safety infrastructure that truly invests in our communities.”
The schism it caused led to 15 of the group’s original 35 members jumping ship.
Adams serves as an ex-officio member of that caucus and several others in the Council, but said she doesn’t get involved with their day-to-day activities.
Her remarks about the pledge and its premise —as well as other comments she made during the radio spot with Lehrer — offer a clearer picture of how the Council may proceed in its ongoing budget negotiations with Mayor Adams, who is not related to the speaker.
“I’m going to support all of the investments in many of the safety solutions we fought for in last year’s budget, like trauma recovery centers and crime victim services,” she said. “This budget needs to prioritize investments and services like that.”
A day earlier, the Council Speaker presided over a budget hearing that examined the NYPD going well over budget on overtime spending, as well as its Strategic Response Group, which came under fire for its response to demonstrations in 2020 protesting the police killing of George Floyd in Minneapolis.
On Monday, she said the city needs to “rein in” the NYPD’s overtime costs and that the Council will be “taking a hard look” at that during budget negotiations.
“We asked very pointed questions. The answers we got pretty much pertained to the things that they were doing to remedy the situation for overtime — not what really got them there for the last fiscal year. So we’re very concerned, and we’re going to have to take a serious look at this,” she said. “I dare say that no other agency could possibly get away with this.”