January 25, 2007
More city cops defecting for higher pay
Surrounding departments are luring NYPD officers,
police
union chief says
By HEIDI J. SHRAGER
ADVANCE CITY HALL BUREAU
The NYPD pays its cops so little that they are leaving in droves
for other, better-paying police departments, according to Patrick
Lynch, president of the largest police union, the Patrolmen's Benevolent
Association.
"The problem is out of control," said Lynch during a
news conference in the PBA's Lower Manhattan office. The number
of resignations is "an extremely strong indicator of dissatisfaction
within the ranks of the NYPD," he added.
Leveraging recent news of an NYPD staffing shortage during a bitter
contract fight with the Bloomberg administration, Lynch contended
the reason the city can't attract and hold onto police officers
is because it doesn't pay them salaries comparable to surrounding
jurisdictions like the Nassau and Suffolk Police departments, the
Port Authority and the Metropolitan Transportation Authority.
Lynch said 902 officers quit in 2006 -- all with fewer than five
years on the job and therefore no pension benefits to gain. That's
42 percent more than the 635 who left in 2004, and nearly six times
the number who quit in 1991, he said. The resignation numbers were
compiled by the PBA and based on city figures and exit interviews,
which showed that in most cases the officers said they were leaving
for a better-paying police job, Lynch said.
Island PBA trustee George Winkler said the problem has a clear
impact in the borough. "All the precincts on Staten Island
are severely understaffed," said the Fort Wadsworth resident.
The North Shore's 120th Precinct, the busiest on the Island, has
about 330 police officers, a number that should be closer to 400,
according to Winkler. Nowadays a 4-to-12 shift in that precinct
will turn out about four radio cars, compared to 10 to 12 when
he was on patrol in the late 1980s and early 1990s, Winkler said.
One result is that people reporting emergencies to 911 have to
wait longer for police to show up, he added.
The quitting trend could give the union leverage in stalled negotiations
for a two-year contract that ended in July 2006. Both sides are
now in the process of choosing an independent state arbitrator,
and blame each other for refusing to negotiate. This will be the
fifth contract of the last six to go to binding arbitration.
The city's latest offer would raise top base pay from $59,588
to $63,309, an amount Lynch said is still far lower than surrounding
jurisdictions. The MTA pays its police a base of $68,781; the Port
Authority pays $80,720, and Suffolk County pays $94,417.
NYPD salaries began losing ground to surrounding departments in
the early 1990s, just as crime started the long decline that now
makes New York one of the safest big cities in the country. But
cops have watched as pay climbed everywhere but here, said Lynch.
Noting that it costs the city $100,000 to recruit and train a
single officer, Lynch estimated the exodus of 1,709 rookies in
2005 and 2006 represented a waste of $176 million.
"When that police officer who's fully trained, and earned
experience on our streets, quits for another police department,
that is an absolute waste of money," he said.
Police Commissioner Raymond Kelly responded that the attrition
rate, excluding retirees, has remained steady at about 2 percent
a year, low by most employers' reckoning.
Both Kelly and Mayor Michael Bloomberg switched the focus from
top pay to the department's ultra-low starting base pay of $25,100,
which they claimed is hurting recruitment efforts. They once again
blamed union leaders, saying they asked for binding arbitration
in the last round of talks and then chose higher salaries for senior
officers at the expense of rookies.
"They chose moving monies from the people who were joining
the union to the people who were there a long time," said
Bloomberg during an event in Brooklyn, adding that he hopes to
fix the disparity in the next contract. "I think we said then
it was not the smartest thing to do, but that's the PBA."
Kelly said the department is down 4,000 officers from where it
was in 2001, and the low starting salary doesn't play well in recruitment
campaigns. "We are in the most expensive city in America," he
said. "It's difficult for us, challenging for us, to hire
people with that number."
Heidi J. Shrager covers City Hall for the Advance. She may be
reached at shrager@siadvance.com.
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