'Driving down crime': Adams funds 1,200 new police recruits in budget

NEW YORK (1010 WINS/WCBS 880) — Officials have added funding for two new police classes in an effort to “double down” on crime decreases across New York City, Mayor Eric Adams and NYPD Commissioner Edward Caban announced Saturday.

“As Commissioner, if you ask me what I need most, the answer will always be more cops,” Caban said at the afternoon announcement in Manhattanville.

The mayor credited his administration’s strong fiscal management and the “booming economy” for City Hall’s financial ability to double 2024’s recruits from 1,200 to 2,400.

Two new police academy classes, in July and October, will supplement two existing classes of 600. The graduates will hit the streets between January and April 2025, putting the department on track to have 35,000 active officers in the coming year.

During the announcement Adams leaned on his oft-repeated phrase “public safety is a prerequisite to prosperity.” The mayor referenced crime decreases across the city’s five boroughs—specifically in homicides and shootings—to emphasize the connection between flooding officers onto the streets and a decreasing crime rate.

City Hall said that overall crime in the city is down 3% year-to-date in 2024, while shootings and homicides are both down by double digits, 20% and 23.5%, respectively.

Adams said that the drop in gun violence “has enabled [NYPD officers] to spend more time keeping New Yorkers safe in so many different ways, and it has prevented some of the trauma that family members experience when you have the victim of a crime.”

Caban discussed NYPD leadership's dedication to providing cops with the necessary technology to help in their duties, like drones and weapons detection, but noted that there is no replacement for officers on the street.

“The men and women are the ultimate fighters of crime. They’re the ones who understand this city, who know our neighborhoods and who use technology to develop solutions,” Caban said. “They’re the ones who stand on the street corner and let the world know, ‘Not today, not on my watch.’”