January 7, 2007
NYPD: Pay us more and more will sign up
Comparatively
low starting salaries and maximum wages make recruiting efforts
difficult
By JOHN ANNESE
Though the city's police union and the mayor's administration
are locked in a contract stalemate, both sides agree that low salaries
are cutting into the NYPD's ability to recruit new officers.
At last week's police academy graduation, commissioner Raymond
Kelly cited starting wages — $25,100 annually for new trainees
during their six months in the academy, $32,700 once they graduate — as the main reason the department missed its recruiting target
by more than 20 percent.
The academy graduated 1,359 new recruits last week, well short
of Kelly's goal of 1,700 officers. Staten Island received 38 of
those recruits, enough to keep the police presence here at status
quo and fill in the gap left by retirements and promotions, according
to NYPD officials.
But union officials contend it's not just the starting salaries
that keep new recruits away.
NYPD officer salaries max out at $59,000 after five years of
service, far below the maximum wages paid to Port Authority and
Metropolitan Transit Authority officers, or to cops in nearby communities
like Nassau and Suffolk counties.
"The problem is top pay," said Patrolmen's Benevolent
Association President Patrick Lynch. "They don't see the light
at the end of the tunnel or at the beginning of the tunnel."
Nassau County offers a lower starting salary than New York, but
the maximum wages top $90,000 annually, he said.
Binding Arbitration
Last May, the PBA shot down a contract offer from the city that
would increase the academy salary to $36,123 and the maximum to
$63,109, but would fund those increases through a series of givebacks
that would apply to new hires only, and would include 10 fewer
vacation days and six fewer paid holidays. It would have also cut
raises to 6.24 percent over two years, down from 10 percent.
Both sides are now poised to enter binding arbitration, the process
that in 2004 left recruits with a $25,100 starting salary. Both
the union and the Bloomberg administration blame each other for
that turn of events.
"The best way for the PBA to achieve raises for their members
that fit their priorities is to bargain at the table, not leave
it up to an arbitrator," said Deputy Mayor Edward Skyler.
As arbitration moves closer, rookies, veterans and brass alike
have registered gripes — all anonymously, out of fear of
reprisal — to the Advance about the NYPD's low pay.
"There's nothing in my fridge right now," said one
recent academy graduate. "It's really tough, not really having
much money."
Still, he alluded to his desire to be a New York City cop, along
with a hope that a new contract and future promotions would ultimately
bring higher wages, as reasons to bear out the low pay.
"Me, personally, I'm looking down the long run," he
said. "Hopefully, it'll be a lot better."
Second Jobs
Rookies often live at home with their parents while they go through
the academy, and married recruits frequently rely on their spouse's
income to help pull them through the six months of training, veteran
sources say. After a year on the force, many request permission
to work a second job, those sources say. They cannot make that
request earlier.
One veteran source rejects any attempt to compare police officers'
pay disputes with that of some other city workers. "As long
as they're going to compare cops to the Sanitation workers or the
hospital workers or the clerks, it's not going to work for the
cops," said one veteran source. "That is ludicrous, that
is absolutely ludicrous. You can't compare the danger. You can't
compare being away from home on holidays. Now all of a sudden,
you're being treated as any other union when it comes to negotiation."
Professor Maki Haberfeld, who chairs the department of law, police
science and criminal justice administration at John Jay College,
argues that current salaries simply won't attract "the best
and the brightest" to the NYPD.
The city is also flirting with police corruption, she said, contending
that underpaid police forces tend to veer toward temptation.
"In five to 10 years, the department will be in very poor
shape if we continue to offer the pay and the lack of benefits
that we offer right now," she said.
Factor in cost-of-living, and New York City ranks 157th in police
pay out of the nation's largest 200 cities, said Matt Barnard,
the editor of The PolicePay Journal, which is put out by the Oklahoma-based
policepay.net, a police compensation consultant group that works
with unions.
"When you think of the United States of America, what city
do you first think of?" Barnard asks. "In our opinion,
they should be the highest paid."
Advance staff writers
Heidi Shrager and Jeff Harrell contributed to this report.
John Annese is a news reporter for the Advance. He may be reached
at annese@siadvance.com.
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