Mayor Eric Adams is speaking plain truths about crime, telling MSNBC last week: “We can use more” cops.
Darn right: The NYPD is facing a historic staffing crisis.
Pre-pandemic, the force counted about 36,000 uniformed officers; that’s now down to 33,582, a drop of more than 2,400 — about 7%.
Last year saw a record 3,700-plus departures, the biggest exodus since 9/11.
This year’s brought another 1,600-plus, the bulk from retirements.
Yes, that marks a slowdown, but still puts exits on pace for more than 2,330 this year — and cause for grave concern.
Especially since most of the officers leaving are retiring veterans.
This would be bad enough on its own.
But New York City is also in the midst of a crime crisis.
The latest data show crime is up almost 31% over 2021.
Thankfully, there’s been a drop-off in shootings and murders, but also big upticks in robberies and assaults.
That’s driven, of course, by the same factors driving the cops off the force.
Namely, a slew of insane criminal-justice “reforms” that hamper law enforcement and prosecutors and empower crooks: a bail regime that means even truly dangerous criminals walk free, Kafkaesque paperwork requirements for prosecutors, the teen-killing “Raise the Age” law, and more.
That’s coupled with naked anti-cop rhetoric from the progressive cadres that dominate the City Council and Legislature.
Trouble is, once you’ve driven the cops off the force, restoring it to full capacity isn’t easy: It’s losing not just raw numbers, but experience and crucial institutional knowledge — wisdom that new recruits can’t get from veterans who’ve already left.
So even if New Yorkers here and around the state wise up and vote the pro-crime caucus out and the exodus from the force is staunched, or the council at least deigns to let the mayor fill out the ranks, The Finest will be in raw shape for all too long a time.
While Adams is entirely right to say, “We must start recruiting young people to get back into the profession of law enforcement,” that alone won’t be enough.
And the damage the Twitter wing of the Democratic Party has done to public safety in Gotham and across the Empire State won’t go away if and when we get a saner government.
Just one more ugly consequence of following fever dreams of “equity” instead of tried and true techniques — like arresting, prosecuting, and jailing criminals — for creating public order and safety.
