Assaults against NYPD cops have skyrocketed by more than 25% this year, troubling new police data obtained by The Post shows.
So far in 2023, 1,731 assaults on cops have been reported, compared to 1,371 for the same period last year — a 26.25% increase, the NYPD statistics show.
The numbers include attacks on uniformed cops as well as those against off-duty officers who take “police action” – meaning identifying themselves as members of New York’s Finest, the NYPD said.
Among those are the caught-on-camera April 18 assault on a uniformed female cop who was randomly whacked by a madman with a bottle as she stood on a busy sidewalk in the Bronx.
When police collared her alleged attacker, career criminal Jose Garcia, 45, he ranted that “God told him to do this,” police sources have said.
Just two weeks earlier, rookie cop Brett Boller, 22, was struck by gunfire after attempting to make an arrest on an MTA bus in Queens.
The alleged gunman, Devin Spraggings, 22, opened fire after a bus driver flagged down Boller and his partner when Spraggings flashed a firearm.
Spraggings allegedly blasted the rookie in the hip after the two tussled.
Patrick Hendry, the president of the Police Benevolent Association union, blamed “anti-police activists” and criminal cases being “thrown out” among the reasons for the dramatic spike.
“There is a simple reason that assaults on cops are going up,” Hendry said in a statement.
“It’s because anti-police activists — many of them on the public payroll — have normalized violent resistance against police officers.”
The increase in assaults also comes as NYPD officers have been heading for the hills in recent years, with 1,269 resignations in 2022, up from 1,032 in 2021 and 553 in 2020, data provided by the department on Thursday shows.
From Jan. 1 of this year through August 16, the most recent data available, the NYPD said there were 613 resignations.
Policing experts argue assaults are part of the “myriad” reasons cops are fleeing the department.
“There will be hundreds more leaving, and I wouldn’t blame them,” warned Joseph Giacalone, a retired NYPD sergeant and adjunct professor at John Jay College of Criminal Justice.
Officers who spoke with The Post feel as if there are no consequences for suspects who target members of the force, with one Midtown cop saying assailants “know they can get away with it.”
A longtime Brooklyn cop echoed those sentiments.
“They all know, the kids, they know no one’s getting locked up and no one’s going to jail for going after a cop,” he said.
“They’re in their cells laughing.”
Additional reporting by Tina Moore and Larry Celona
