top of page

Welcome to Crime and Justice News

Many NYC Police Officers Quit Amid Crackdown On High Overtime

Crime and Justice News

The New York Police Department’s big spending on overtime — more than $1 billion last fiscal year — has been lucrative for some, but painful for others. About 100 department employees made $300,000 or more in the 2024 fiscal year thanks to overtime payouts of as much as $200,000. The police commissioner's salary is $277,000. Stacking up overtime just before retiring can pay off for officers, whose pensions can be based on their final year’s earnings, including overtime. For Angeliesse and Mike Nesterwitz, who met and married as New York officers, all those extra hours became unbearable. They each made more than $100,000 a year, but they barely saw each other. Like an increasing number of officers, they found a solution: They quit. They took jobs at the Tampa International Airport Police Department, even though the jobs paid only $66,000, reports the New York Times. Angeliesse, 28, says, “We live a life with no stress. I don’t think I’d ever give it up.”


Commissioner Jessica Tisch moved at least 29 officers into new jobs to clamp down on overtime abuse. Sixteen of them had earned more than $100,000 in overtime pay in the last fiscal year. The crackdown may come at a cost, as officers who were banking on high overtime payouts to juice their pensions leave before the cutbacks affect them. In January alone, about 285 detectives retired, an ominous sign given that a total of 450 detectives retired in all of last year, said Scott Munro, the president of their union. The department is bracing for mass departures this year, as about 3,700 officers will reach their 20th anniversaries, making them eligible for full pensions based on last fiscal year’s pay. The department is trying to recruit new officers to fill these holes and beef up staffing to reduce the mandatory overtime that is also driving officers away.

“The NYPD is not viewed as a dream job,” said Patrick Hendry, president of the Police Benevolent Association. “Many police officers are using it as a steppingstone to another department where they can find better benefits and a better quality of life.”

61 views

Recent Posts

See All

Comments


A daily report co-sponsored by Arizona State University, Criminal Justice Journalists, and the National Criminal Justice Association

bottom of page