By: Ilana Siyance
In 2020 there was a 75 percent year over year spike in retirements of New York City police officers. As reported by the NY Post, over 5,300 NYPD uniformed officers retired or put in their leave papers in 2020. In all, the force lost roughly 15 percent of the force, with 2,600 officers who left the job and another 2,746 filing for retirement for a total of 5,346 cops lost.
It’s not hard to see why. The year marked the pandemic, rioting, anti-cop hostility, calls to defund the police, and finally a jump in NYC shootings. By contrast, in 2019, 1,509 uniformed NYPD officers left and another 1,544 filed for retirement, for a total of 3,053. As of April 5, already the NYPD count of uniformed officers has dwindled from 36,900 in 2019 to 34,974. “Cops are forming a conga line down at the pension section and I don’t blame them,” said Joseph Giacalone, a retired NYPD sergeant and adjunct professor at John Jay College of Criminal Justice. “NYPD cops are looking for better jobs with other departments or even embarking on new careers.”
As per NYPD data, the exodus began after the killing of George Floyd on May 25, 2020 by a police officer in Minnesota. From that time through June 24, 272 uniformed NYPD officers filed for retirement. Giacalone said he expects the rhetoric to continue with a “long, hot summer ahead,” as the City Council votes to remove qualified immunity from the NYPD, which will make it easier to personally sue a cop, which will turn “the job [into] … a minefield.”
“The Mayor and City Council are absolutely trying to abolish the police. They’ve kept our pay absurdly low. They’ve ratcheted up our exposure to lawsuits. They’ve demonized us at every opportunity. And they’ve taken away the tools we need to do the job we all signed up for, which is to keep our communities safe”, Police Benevolent Association President Pat Lynch told The Post. “Now the NYPD is spending money on slick recruiting ads to replace the experienced cops who are leaving in droves. City Hall should just admit the truth: police abolition-through-attrition is their goal. They won’t stop until the job has become completely unbearable, and they’re getting closer to that goal with every passing day.”
In an op-ed in The Post earlier in April, Ed Mullins, president of the Sergeants Benevolent Association, wrote that ending immunity “won’t hold accountable the bad apples among cops, as some politicians insist. It will merely stop good people from wanting to become police officers.”
