amNY report of NYPD staffing crisis stirs up conversation in NYC Mayor’s race

Leading New York City mayoral candidates on Wednesday cited amNewYork’s report on the NYPD’s worsening struggle with retaining officers as they hit the campaign trail.

Both Assembly Member Zohran Mamdani, the Democratic nominee and frontrunner, and former Gov. Andrew Cuomo, his chief rival, touted the report to pitch their own plans to keep more officers on the force and boost headcount on Aug. 20.

Data obtained by amNewYork revealed that the attrition rate of officers, either retiring or leaving the department before reaching their 20-year mark, has skyrocketed. It showed that an average of 316 rank-and-file officers left the NYPD every month of this year and that the department has lost 5,248 individuals since January 2024, while only adding 4,244 new recruits over that same period.

On Wednesday, the NYPD added another 1,093 new recruits to the Academy ranks.

According to the Police Benevolent Association, officers are leaving in droves for other departments due to the workload and its toll on their personal lives.

Former Gov. Andrew Cuomo reposted amNY’s NYPD staffing exclusive on his X account Wednesday, saying, “It’s past time to reverse this dangerous trend to protect our city. My plan will add 5,000 officers, 1,500 in the subways, with incentive bonuses to attract the best.”Photo by Lloyd Mitchell

Mamdani, following an unrelated Wednesday news conference, cited the newly revealed severity of the retention issue as a reason to implement his plan to establish a separate agency outside the NYPD to take on certain responsibilities currently left to cops. His plan for a “Department of Community Safety” would assume duties such as responding to mental health crises either on the streets or in the subways, stemming gun violence, and providing services to victims.

The lawmaker contends the new department would free NYPD officers from being stretched too thin and allow officers to focus on their core job of tackling crime.

“When you ask those officers, what they will tell you is, it’s the lack of quality of life, it is the forced overtime, it is the ways in which this job is asking them to respond to nearly every failure of the social safety net, and it’s pushing them out of the department,” Mamdani said of why officers are leaving the NYPD.

“My vision is one where police officers are not only enabled, but empowered, to focus on the major categories of crime, the ones that they signed up to address,” he added.

However, Mamdani’s plan does not call for increasing the NYPD’s headcount beyond its budgeted amount of 35,000. Currently, the force is below that level by 1,261.

Mamdani has faced criticism for that aspect of his plan and for his past calls to “defund the police,” which he now says are “out of step” with his mayoral campaign.

Meanwhile, Cuomo’s campaign X account reposted the amNY story to boost his own plan to increase the NYPD’s ranks by 5,000 officers.

“Public safety is job 1,” Cuomo said in the post. “The NYPD is losing officers at a record level. Rebuilding it must be a top priority. The NYPD are NY’s finest. It’s past time to reverse this dangerous trend to protect our city My plan will add 5,000 officers, 1,500 in the subways, with incentive bonuses to attract the best.”

The former governor is running as an independent after handily losing the Democratic primary to Mamdani.

Cuomo’s post drew a swift rebuke from Adams’ Deputy Mayor for Communications Fabien Levy. He pointed out that it came right after Adams announced his administration had hired its largest class of NYPD recruits since 2016.

“The fact that he posted this AFTER @NYCMayor announced one of the largest police classes in the last decade & nearly 10,000 officers hired under his administration is hysterical,” Levy said.

Adams has been defending his handling of the NYPD and the rest of his record as he runs for reelection — also as an independent.