NYPD Exodus: Big Trouble Ahead

As the city strives to get crime under control, the flood of cops quitting the NYPD couldn’t come at a worse time. As The Post reported, 239 officers hightailed it out in January and February, a 36% spike from the same period last year. That’s more than double the 110 who left in 2021 and the most since 250 quit amid a contract dispute 16 years ago.

Fueling the outflow: “Cops are being forced to work an inhumane amount of overtime . . . while being penalized” for minor infractions, one cop said. Officers feel they can’t do their jobs, thanks to pols’ anticop attitudes and pro-criminal laws like cashless bail that put perps back on the street only hours after cops arrest them.

That’s left the department headcount 2,467 (7%) cops short of 2020’s roster.

Yet overtime has been crucial to one of the NYPD’s biggest wins of late, the turnaround in subway crime, as Nicole Gelinas notes. With current levels of OT unsustainable for much longer, that victory could soon vanish.

Meanwhile, almost every precinct is under-staffed, sources say; they “barely have enough personnel to meet the minimum required to safely answer 911 calls.” Response times are up troublingly.

Yet Albany’s progressives resist even Gov. Kathy Hochul’s small fix to the no-bail law. Meanwhile, the NYPD has lowered training requirements, scrapping the timed 1.5-mile run, presumably to attract more recruits. Never mind that cops who aren’t sufficiently fit won’t make the city safer.

That decision, by the way, came despite opposition from Police Commissioner Keechant Sewell, raising questions of who’s really in charge. Juanita Holmes, then chief of training, told The Post she won the mayor’s approval to ditch the run, sidestepping Sewell.

Plus, Deputy Mayor for Public Safety Phil Banks has reportedly met with NYPD brass without Sewell present. Recall, too, that Hizzoner created that position for Banks, an old friend and a one-time contender to head the NYPD who quit amid a corruption scandal.

Chain-of-command chaos doesn’t help amid soaring resignations, staff shortages, broken criminal-justice laws and crime rates still above the lows of a few years ago. Despite some recent gains, major felonies last week were still up 47% over the same week in 2021.

All of which bodes ill for public safety in the medium term. Adams, who was elected based on his vow to rein in crime, needs to get his house in order