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NYPD Could Avoid Citywide Budget Cuts Imposed by NYC Mayor

NYPD Could Avoid Citywide Budget Cuts Imposed by NYC Mayor

New York City Mayor Eric Adams said he would consider excluding the New York City Police Department from a citywide cost-cutting measure that he is implementing across all government agencies. 

In hist first weeks in office, Adams asked all city departments to cut non-personnel spending by 3% as New York prepares to balance its $98.7 billion budget without a continued flow of federal aid money.

On Wednesday, Adams said the police department could be held outside of the Program to Eliminate the Gap, or PEG, cuts. Instead of stripping the NYPD of money, he said it could allocate staff more efficiently. 

“Here’s my problem with the NYPD: deployment,” he said in a Wednesday press conference. The city can cut police presence by 50% by cracking down on cops who spend their time idling around and redirecting officers to neighborhoods most in need, he said. “You want to impress me?” Adams asked. “Go to the communities that need you to be there instead of that showy stuff.” 

Adams could change his mind before proposing his preliminary budget, which is expected in mid-February. The city health departments and hospitals, which are reeling from the pandemic and Covid-induced staffing shortages, might be excluded as well.

During his campaign for mayor, Adams promised to cut the amount NYPD spends on overtime by half by fixing scheduling inefficiencies and decreasing police presence during parades.

The nation’s largest police department exceeds its allotted budget by hundreds of millions of dollars every fiscal year. The NYPD budget rose by roughly $200 million for fiscal 2022 from the year before, pushing annual police spending to $5.1 billion.

©2022 Bloomberg L.P.