NEW YORK, Feb. 4 (Xinhua) -- Officers of the New York Police Department (NYPD) have been leaving in droves and leaders are leaning hard on overtime to make up the shortfalls, reported The New York Times on Tuesday.
"It's a strategy that in the 2024 fiscal year cost the department more than 1 billion U.S. dollars, twice what it had budgeted for overtime, and created opportunities for corruption, capped by the resignation of Jeffrey Maddrey, the top uniformed officer," noted the report. "He came under investigation after a lieutenant accused him of coercing her into sex in exchange for hundreds of thousands of dollars in overtime."
The department, the nation's largest, has about 34,600 police officers, down from a peak of 40,000 in 2000, according to department figures and the city's Independent Budget Office.
In a statement, the police said that Mayor Eric Adams and Commissioner Jessica S. Tisch were working to get the force up to at least 35,000 officers while making "smart, thoughtful decisions about how to manage overtime."
To solve the problem, Tisch has been cracking down on the hours, even as thousands of officers may respond by retiring to avoid seeing their pensions shrink. The recruitment picture is just as bleak, with the number of people signing up to take the entrance exam plunging by more than half since 2017. ■