New York City Mayor Eric Adams said the city had restored funding to the New York Police Department and would add 600 recruits in April, a reversal of the dire warning he gave in November that there would be a hiring freeze. Adams said that “better-than-anticipated tax revenue” and reduced spending on care for migrants who have been arriving by the thousands had allowed the city to avoid cuts to the police and fire Departments, reports the New York Times. The recruits will join three classes already scheduled to graduate this year, “meaning thousands of additional cops on our streets in 2024 under this administration,” Adams said. “More police officers means safer streets, safer subways and a safer New York City.”
When the mayor announced the hiring freeze in November, some said they found it difficult to believe that Adams, a former police captain who has tied his identity to the department, would go forward with the cuts. They questioned whether the mayor’s warnings were an effort to get President Biden’s attention over the migrant crisis or were a negotiating tactic in the annual budget negotiations with the City Council. Justin Brannan, a City Council member who chairs the finance committee, said Adams’s announcement was “out of step with the math.” Patrick Hendry, president of the Police Benevolent Association, said that while he was relieved to hear of the new class of recruits, the department was experiencing a “staffing crisis.” He said,
“Nearly 3,000 more cops quit or retired last year. Those who remain are stretched beyond their breaking point.”