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In a down economy, the most important investment a city can make is in its police department. Elected officials, business leaders and just plain folk instinctively understand that good things come from safe streets while dangerous streets undermine everything else. Even the mayor would agree with that. I can’t remember a state-of-the city speech or budget announcement that didn’t contain a statement about the importance of a safe city to our economy. We police officers understand it better than anyone else because a precinct is a microcosm of the city. With few exceptions, precincts have good sectors and bad. And in the bad ones, you see no thriving businesses, except perhaps those that exist on the margin of the law. There are no nice supermarkets, stores restaurants. There are those blocks that mothers warn their children away from because of perceived danger or at least disorder. These are the sectors where real-estate values are at rock-bottom because no one with a choice wants to live or work there. And it’s all because of crime, its presence or perception. How, then, can the city treat the NYPD like any other agency in its budget deliberations and decisions? It defies common sense. And yet that’s exactly what it has been doing. The proposal to cancel the January 2009 class is counterintuitive. |
In September 2008, the headcount for the rank of police officer stood at 23,706. In September 1999, my first year as PBA treasurer, the headcount stood at 27,305. That leaves about 3,600 fewer police officers patrolling our streets today. And the same has happened in other ranks, reducing the NYPD’s overall sworn-officer strength by 5,000. However, despite the evisceration of our ranks, and because of a perceived notion that all mayoral agencies should be treated equally, the January class has been deemed expendable, which will force our headcount down to nearly alltime- low numbers. In my view, safety should be the first priority for city government. Without safe streets, we run the risk of returning to the dark days of the 1970’s because people will not do business in the city or think of New York City as a tourist or entertainment destination, further deminishing the tax revenues available to fund programs. None of these the governmental services are worth anything when people are afraid to walk the streets. It’s time for the city to recognize the importance of the job the NYPD does and to remove it from the budgetary game it plays whenever the economy tanks. Police services are a priority because the first obligation of government is to protect its citizens. |
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