NYPD Exodus at Record Highs Amid 'Anti-Cop Hostility'

Amid massive crime waves, New York state police and bail reform, and Democrat talk of defunding the police creating "anti-cop hostility" – all striking at law enforcement morale – a record number of NYPD officers will quit or retire this year.

More than 1,500 have already resigned or retired thus far, which is on pace to shatter the biggest exodus on record, according to the New York Post.

NYPD pension stats show 524 resignations and 1,072 retirements as of May 31.

"The city is out of control — especially since bail reform," a former Queens cop told the Post. "Get out while you still can."

The cop, who only wanted to be identified as "Joe," told the Post his job "got worse and worse" amid Democrats' reimagining of policing and bail reform, which kept more criminals on the streets and led to New Yorkers not respecting law enforcement.

"The last few years so many people had been leaving and manpower was so low that you'd go to work and you'd answer 25 to 30 jobs a day and you're burnt out by the end of the day," he continued to the Post. "There was no time for law enforcement"

"Radio run, radio run, radio run all day long."

And all the hustling, even if an arrest was made, the criminal was "back in the precinct picking up their property the same day."

The exodus is a 38% increase of departures over the same months in 2021 (1,159 departures). And the three-year trend is disturbing, as 2021 was a 46% hike of departures as 1,092 left the force.

"Last year the number of cops who quit before becoming eligible for their full pension was the highest in two decades," a source told the Post. "This year we are on pace for the highest ever recorded."

While there were 36,900 NYPD officers in 2019, there are now just 34,687, according to the report.

"The NYPD is sliding deeper into a staffing crisis that will ultimately hurt public safety," Police Benevolent Association Patrolman Union President Patrick Lynch told the Post. "Low pay, inferior benefits and constant abuse from the City Council and other anti-cop demagogues has pushed attrition to record highs.

"We need more cops working more hours to turn the tide of violence, but there is only so much overtime they can squeeze out of the cops who remain."

The NYPD "is struggling" to recruit, Lynch added. It was hoping to hire 1,009 new cops in December's recruiting class, but just 675 came through, according to the Post.

"Residents would ask, 'Why does this keep happening?' and I would have to explain to them, 'This guy is going to be locked up tonight, but tomorrow night he's going to come down your block again, he's going to be on the same corner, you're going to see him in the same stores [committing crimes]," Joe told the Post. "I wish there was more we could do. But we can’t."

The NYPD officers jumping ship are not leaving the profession – as much as just leaving New York City, which has suffered through years of Democrat rule and anti-policing policies of former Mayor Bill de Blasio.

New Mayor Eric Adams is a former NYPD captain, but little has changed in the way of anti-policing policy.

"Cops who made the move before me said, 'It's a decision you have to make; you can't turn this job down; the quality of life is better, they treat you more like a human being than a number,'" Joe said.

The advice includes "take other [civil service] tests, explore all options, look out of state, Florida, Texas, Arizona," Joe continued. "My friends were all going to the Port Authority, Nassau, Suffolk, MTA [police departments]."

Back at the NYPD in Joe's former Queens precinct, morale has "plummeted" even more, he added.

"When I ask, 'How are things?' the response is: 'Horrible – worse than when you left and it's only been six months.'"

The NYPD and crime crises are generational and cannot be fixed quickly, according to John Jay College of Criminal Justice professor Joseph Giacalone.

"It will take 20 years to fix this mess," he told the Post. "The city is bleeding blue and only the cop haters will be celebrating.

"There's no way to stop it. Activists, abolitionists, and their pandering politicians have done so much damage to the profession, that it will take a generation to fix, if at all."