NY Post
More than 1,500 NYPD officers have either resigned or retired so far this year – on pace to be the biggest exodus of officers since the statistics have been available, The Post has learned. Some 524 cops have resigned and 1,072 have retired as of May 31, NYPD pension stats obtained by The Post show. The 1,596 total is a 38% spike from the same period in 2021, when 1,159 cops called it a career, and a staggering 46% climb from 2020, when 1,092 left the force by the same date. Anti-cop hostility, bail reform, and rising crime have fed into frustration among the NYPD rank and file, according to one NYPD officer who recently fled for greener pastures at a Long Island police department after 6 1/2 years with the New York’s Finest. “The city is out of control — especially since bail reform,” according to the former Queens cop, who asked to be identified only as “Joe.” The mantra now is “get out while you still can.” Joe’s patrol gig “got worse and worse” over time, he said. “The last few years so many people had been leaving and manpower was so low that you’d go to work and you’d answer 25 to 30 jobs a day and you’re burnt out by the end of the day,” he said, adding, “there was no time for law enforcement” because it would be “radio run, radio run, radio run all day long.” Even when he made an arrest, “they were back in the precinct picking up their property the same day.” “Residents would ask, ‘Why does this keep happening?’ and I would have to explain to them, ‘This guy is going to be locked up tonight, but tomorrow night he’s going to come down your block again, he’s going to be on the same corner, you’re going to see him in the same stores [committing crimes]. I wish there was more we could do. But we can’t,’” Joe said. The stunning pension stats are at odds with the NYPD’s own figures, which show 1,091 cops set to leave as of May 31, with 494 resigning and 594 retiring. Overall, the current roster of 34,687 is a significant drop from 2019, when there were 36,900 officers on the force. Officers typically work 20 years or more to collect their full pension, which can equate to 50% of their final average salary. The data obtained by The Post shows those who are “running their time,” or using accrued days off before they exit. Those cops are still counted in the NYPD’s own stats as being on the force. “Last year the number of cops who quit before becoming eligible for their full pension was the highest in two decades. This year we are on pace for the highest ever recorded,” the source said. Joe — who will ultimately get only a prorated fraction of his pension — knows of at least four other NYPD pals who left the city for Long Island police departments.
