Police Commissioner Ray Kelly and his senior commanders allege that the 3% turnover rate experienced by the NYPD is the envy of corporate America. But you can’t compare corporate America to civil service. That is like comparing apples to oranges.

A 3% turnover may be low in industries where people jump from corporation to corporation in a competitive environment but it’s a significant upheaval in civil service.

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Traditionally, civil service workers — police officers, for example — work in one department until they’ve earned their pension. There’s little expectation of leaving the NYPD for another department.

To see what a 3% turnover really means to the NYPD, you have to consider the historic rate and the department’s ability to recruit replacements. Let’s look at the facts and figures: N.Y.P.D. resignations rose from 159 in 1991 to a peak of 1,224 in 2002.

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That’s a 770% increase in 11 years. Do the city’s negotiators think it’s a coincidence that those were the very same years that the city’s economy was booming for everyone but New York City police officers?

Management says that 2002 was an aberration because it was the year after 9/11 and there was a hiring boom at the FDNY and Port Authority Police.

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But if we look at the five-year average of resignations from 1999 through 2004 we find that the department lost 843 M.O.S. per year. Comparing the average resignations over the past five years of 843 resignations to 1991 when there were 159, we can calculate an average increase in resignations of 530%. That certainly is a clear indication that the department is having a retention crisis.

Management argues that these numbers are such a small percentage of the total department that they are insignificant, but since the year 2000, a total of 4,215 M.O.S. have resigned, according to department records. The department spends an estimated $100,000 to recruit, test, investigate and train one police officer. Multiply that by 4,215 M.O.S. resignations over the past 5 years and the cost is a staggering $421 million. That’s a great deal of money wasted that, had it been applied to police officers’ salaries to keep pay competitive, would have prevented most of those resignations.

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The department’s denial is not limited to the retention issue but extends to recruitment as well. While it’s harder to quantify this problem, there’s plenty of information pointing to a severe recruitment problem, including the mayor’s own management reports and the department’s inability to meet targets set by the mayor.

Those with a few years on the job know how difficult it used to be to become a New York City police officer. You had to satisfy a traffic ticket you got at Jones Beach during the summer of 1975 before you could become a cop here. You stood on lines of thousands at 49 Thomas Street in downtown Manhattan just to get the test application.

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If you filled the thing out wrong, or failed to pay the test fee, or missed the filing deadline, you were out of luck and had to wait four years for the next test. If you were late for the test — which was given on two days, a Saturday for the general population and an alternative date for Sabbath observers — you had to wait the four years.

Today, because so few people can afford to become an N.Y.P.D. officer, management has bent the rules to meet its recruiting goals. The test fee has been eliminated — you’re allowed to apply online — and tests are offered on multiple dates. Even worse, you can have just about any crime on your record shy of a felony and it will be overlooked.

Patrick J. Lynch
President