According to Councilmember Peter Vallone Jr., chair of the City Council’s Public Safety Committee, the city will soon see a police headcount that rivals the 1990s.
Reminder: Crime in the 90s was way, way up (In 2008, crime was down nearly 78 percent from 1990).
Police Commissioner Raymond Kelly told the City Council this morning that the city could see a peak police headcount of 35,707 officers this year, including a police class this summer of 250. In the mayor’s preliminary budget, the January 2010 class has been eliminated. Under less dire economic circumstances, the city would have two, 1,000 member police classes annually.
This revelation did not sit well with Vallone, who said, under these circumstances, the police headcount could go as low as 33,200 officers. Kelly said the department currently had 5,000 fewer officers than in 2001.
The federal government may not be coming to the rescue either. Kelly said the city would be eligible for up to $500 million in federal funding from the stimulus package that would go towards new officers. That pot, though, is for all cities with populations greater than 150,000. It would be unlikely, Kelly added, that these grants would solve the city’s police headcount problem.
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By Courtney Gross on March 31, 2009, 4:44 pm
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