Council Speaker Adrienne Adams lashed into the NYPD Tuesday over its potentially budget-busting overtime costs — calling it out of control at a level that no other city government agency could get away with.
Police overtime is projected to hit $740 million this fiscal year — nearly double the NYPD’s extra-duty budget and the highest level seen in the last decade, city officials said Monday.
The NYPD has already surpassed the $374 million allocated by the City Council for overtime by nearly $100 million as of February, with four months still remaining in the 2023 fiscal year, according to the report issued by City Comptroller Brad Lander.
“I dare say that no other agency could possibly get away with this on the administrative side,” Adrienne Adams told WYNC’s Brian Lehrer during a Tuesday interview
“I don’t think any other agency would be able to do this.”
The council speaker responded to a hypothetical question of what the reaction would be if teachers in the city’s public school system rang up as massive an OT bill as had police officers.
She said the NYPD is the only agency that has “carte blanche” when it comes to overtime.
Adams said historically it’s been difficult getting the NYPD to come up with a coherent plan to rein in OT.
“They’re just bursting through the overtime. It doesn’t look like there’s any end in sight,” the council speaker said.
Adams’ criticism is a continuation of brickbats leveled at the NYPD’s $5.6 billion overall budget and OT costs during two recent budget hearings on Monday and last Friday.
“Your budget is bigger than the Ukrainian military,” said Queens Councilwoman Tiffany Caban, a champion of defunding the police and redirecting money to social services, said on Friday.
“It sounds to me like these agencies are facing the challenge of actually doing more with less because of the billions per year your department demands,” Caban said.
But Police Commissioner Keechant Sewell and other NYPD brass defended the spending during a lengthy committee budget hearing Monday, telling councilmembers the department’s dwindling headcount warranted the extra pay.
Sewell conceded that the level of overtime “is not sustainable in the long term,” but said it has been needed to bridge the gap in shifts left by a dwindling police force.
As of last month, the NYPD’s staffing came in at 34,017 — down nearly 900 from last year.
It has dropped more than 2,500 from the peak of 2019, when the department employed 36,717 uniformed officers, according to the comptroller’s report.
Mayor Eric Adams and the NYPD also put in place a transit safety plan last fall — with Gov. Kathy Hochul agreeing to having the state foot OT costs — to flood the subway system with more cops to curb rampant crime.
So, the state, not the city, will pay a chunk of the OT costs.
Early results show crime has plummeted in the subway system with the increased patrols, The Post reported last month.
In testimony before the City Council’s Public Safety Committee, NYPD officials said that as of Monday, OT costs stood at $550 million, though that tally does not include the reimbursement of $62 million from the state for the extra policing hours in transit.
Chief of Department Jeff Maddrey said the main driver of overtime was the department’s deployment to stem crime patterns across the city.
Sewell said the department has tried to cut overtime costs where it could, specifically noting that the NYPD has reevaluated its “cookie cutter” police response to events, instead catering the presence to the need.
That led to a 14% dip in OT costs during planned events, according to police officials.
“It comes down to, as we move forward, putting our officers where the need is evaluating where the successes have been and being able to shift our resources accordingly to be able to account for the fact that the money the funds will not be in perpetuity,” she told council members.
Council Speaker Adams said the NYPD does have extraordinary influence, particularly in administration headed by Mayor Eric Adams, a retired transit cop who made public safety the cornerstone of his successful campaign for City Hall.
But she also credited the police with cutting crime.
“The work of the NYPD is extraordinary,” the council speaker said.
“Crime is definitely going down in the city. Crime is not rampant.”
