Police Officers are NOT popular around America for some people…
But?
Cops ARE needed in America….
The New York City Police Department has more of them then a lot of cities….
Around 34,000….
But that number varies….
As the Department does it semi-annual hiring and training of about 1,000 new recruits?
It loses many more thousands ….
The walk aways include retirements and ….increasingly to other police departements around the country….
And YES….
Money and quality of life ARE factors for cops the same as for others leaving New York….
“The N.Y.P.D. regularly monitors attrition and plans accordingly to address the loss of officers who retire or leave the department for a variety of reasons,” the department said in a statement. “Year-to-date we have hired approximately 2,000 individuals, including 600 individuals who were hired in October and have been training at the Police Academy.”
Police departments across the country are grappling with increasing resignations and retirements. And while hiring levels rose last year after a sharp decrease in 2020, they have not made up for the losses, according to a March report from the Police Executive Research Forum, a law enforcement policy group. In November, the organization’s director, Chuck Wexler, wrote that finding the next generation of cops may be “the single most daunting challenge that policing has faced in decades.”
The shortage has prompted agencies in less populous, less expensive areas like Aurora to broaden and intensify their searches for talent.
Chief Oates, who retired this week, said the officers he recruited from New York were partially lured by better pay. The starting salary at the Aurora Police Department is about $65,000 in an area where the average monthly rent is approximately $1,750 and the average home sale price is about $624,000, according to an August report from the U.S. Department of Housing and Urban Development.
Incoming officers with four or more years on the job can earn a salary of around $100,000. Aurora also gives incentives to those who transfer from other departments, including a signing bonus of up to $10,000 and a $5,000 relocation bonus….
…
Lower pay is exacerbated by other grievances, Mr. Lynch said. Many officers must work longer hours to make up for the staffing shortage to meet extra demands like patrolling the subway system, he said. Some officers feel frustrated when the people they have arrested are quickly released, he added.
Since January 2020, about 9,400 officers have left, city pension data shows. About 6,900 have joined, though some graduating classes have fallen short of target goals….
image…WNYC