At the Police Commissioner's City Council Hearing: Staffing; Training and Tort Reform

PBA president Patrick J. Lynch said:

“This union has been saying for a decade that the answer to quelling crime hotspots around the city is to hire adequate numbers of police officers to staff our station houses.  There are about 6,000 fewer police officers on our streets today than on 9/11/01 and while 1,000 more officers will help, it is nowhere near the number of officers that we need to bring us to the levels necessary to patrol communities and to safeguard against terrorist acts.  Increased training helps us to do our job better and safer but it pulls police officers from patrol so in order to do more training you’ll need more officers to cover patrol posts.  To keep New York City safe, City Hall has to make police staffing a priority.  The PBA called on the city last year to adopt a Chicago style ‘no settlement policy’ on nuisance lawsuits against police officers.  They prefer to settle suits to save money but in the long run it only generates more baseless suits for them to settle.  We need a no settlement policy in order to send a message that there will be no quick payday for criminals who make baseless claims against police officers.”