Unlike most other city agencies, the NYPD has been largely shielded from major budget cuts in recent months. This is despite skyrocketing overtime costs that, according to the City Council, are running hundreds of millions of dollars over budget for the current fiscal year.
For “some reason,” Public Advocate Jumaane Williams said Wednesday, “the NYPD is the only one that has access to the type of overtime that they claim they need.”
At Wednesday’s City Council budget hearing, top NYPD officials in part blamed pro-Palestinian protests. There have been almost 1,900 protests since the Oct. 7 Hamas attack, officials said, or 12 per day on average.
“I want you to be assured that we do put our best efforts in to reduce overtime,” said Jeffrey Maddrey, the NYPD’s chief of department. “Our biggest challenge with reducing overtime is the unforeseen and unknown.”
In his opening remarks, NYPD Commissioner Edward Caban addressed crime committed by migrants, which recently led him to declare a “migrant crime wave.”
“While the vast majority of migrants are here to improve their lives and provide for their families, there is a small group that’s actively breaking the law,” Caban said. “We have seen crime patterns which identify perpetrators are directly connected to migrant shelters.”
City Council Speaker Adrienne Adams, meanwhile, pressed the NYPD on Gov. Kathy Hochul’s deployment of New York Army National Guard troops in the subway, which police officials said had caused no bad blood.
“How are your officers feeling, having the National Guard side by side with them?” Adams asked.
“We’re all getting along, if that’s the question,” said Michael Kemper, the NYPD’s chief of transit. “There’s no negativity going on, and it’s allowing us to expand our footprint.”
But NYPD Chief of Patrol John Chell took an indirect aim at Hochul on social media following the announcement, writing that “our transit system is not a ‘war’ zone!”
In another recent post, Chell misidentified a Bronx judge he said had “set free a predator.” The NYPD on Wednesday called it “an honest mistake.”
“Going forward, we are going to be extremely careful — extremely careful — to make sure that we’re getting our facts right, that things are being double-checked,” said Michael Gerber, the NYPD’s deputy commissioner of legal matters. “We completely appreciate that when we’re putting things out there, we have to make sure the information is accurate.”
Mayor Eric Adams responded, saying that “if you are going to use social media platforms to get your message across, it is absolutely essential and imperative that it be correct.”
The NYPD has a preliminary budget of $5.8 billion for the fiscal year that begins July 1.
