The PBA greeted the New Year by staging an extravaganza on 42nd Street in the heart of the Times Square area, “the crossroads of the world.” On Jan. 5, PBA President Pat Lynch unveiled a towering and panoramic billboard (right) that makes a convincing case that New York City police officers deserve a hefty pay increase.

	Photo by William Baker
	PBA President meets the press under the 42nd Street billboard.

The billboard — 30-feet-high, more than 82-feet-wide and in living color — went up on the north side of the street just east of Eighth Avenue on the afternoon of New Year’s Eve. It delivers to tourists from Texas, sightseers from Singapore and ordinary New Yorkers — everyone who passes, that is — the same disheartening message: The New York City police officer, as omnipresent and professionally excellent as he or she is, is astoundingly underpaid. While making this town what the FBI has called the “safest big city in America” in terms of crime statistics and protecting us all from terrorism at the same time, the New York City cop earns a total-compensation package ranked 145th among the nation’s 200 largest cities.

“We don’t even earn the average of those 200, and that has to be fixed,” Lynch told reporters at a press conference beneath the sign. “We want the public to know that the reason they are living in safety is because of New York City police officers, and we think they’d be surprised to know that we’re not being paid as police professionals are in other communities.”

The billboard’s unveiling attracted wide media coverage. New York 1 ran a three-minute package with pictures of the display, sound bites from Lynch and interviews with passersby sympathizing with the cops and supporting pay increases. Similar pieces aired on Fox-5, UPN-9 and WINS news radio. The next day’s daily newspapers featured prominent coverage — with photos — in the New York Times, Daily News, Newsday and the Sun.

At night, 12 overhead lamps illuminate the billboard. An electronic zipper below the sign repeats the message: “NYC Cops Deserve Better Pay.”