Mass exodus of Police Officers

Forty-five fully trained and highly experienced NYC police officers recently resigned from the NYPD to join the Nassau County police department for higher pay, it was announced today by NYC PBA president Patrick J. Lynch. Former NYC police officers represent nearly half of the 99 Nassau County police recruits in their current class. Top pay for NYPD police officers is $59,588 while top pay in Nassau is $92,432.

The total number of NYC police officers who have quit the NYPD during the first ten-months of this year is 820 (enough to staff over five precinct houses) which is about 3% higher than last year when 799 resigned in the same period. It is unclear if the 45 recently resigned officers are included in the October resignation statistics.

PBA president Patrick J. Lynch said: “There seems to be a direct correlation between our salaries falling farther and farther behind other nearby police departments and the ever increasing numbers of fully trained and experienced NYC police officers quitting before they are eligible to collect a pension. In 1991 only 159 police officers resigned from the NYPD while 902 quit in 2006.

“Police officer top pay in NYC is just not competing in this area. When a town with a lower median income and lower real property value like Elizabeth, New Jersey, can pay their police officers $15,000 a year more than NYC while Nassau County pays over $30,000 more, it should be no surprise that they will be siphoning off some of our best and brightest police officers. Not only does NYC lose experienced police officers, but the $100,000 per officer that NYC pays to recruit, investigate, screen medically and psychologically and train each officer is wasted. That money would be better spent keeping fully trained and experienced officers patrolling the streets of NYC.”

The PBA and city are presently in binding arbitration before PERB to settle the 2004/06 police contract.