For New York City to “work,” it needs to be, and feel, safe. Absent the confidence of both residents and tourists that the streets of America’s largest city will be secure and orderly, the Big Apple risks losing more of its luster. This is a reality that New York City’s new mayor, Zohran Mamdani — once known for saying “nature is healing” — began at least pretending to appreciate after NYPD Detective Didarul Islam was shot and killed in the line of duty last summer. But a recent announcement calls the mayor’s sincerity into question.
Last week, Mayor Mamdani announced that the city would need to address a budget shortfall in part by canceling the planned hiring of 5,000 additional officers over the next two years. The decision will undoubtedly harm public safety by exacerbating a pre-existing recruitment and retention crisis that has already led to slower response times and limited the NYPD’s ability to bring overall crime back down to pre-2020 levels.
While the number of uniformed officers in the department rose to about 34,300 by January of this year, the next two years will see thousands of officers who joined the department during the hiring blitz of 2006-2007 become eligible for retirement as they hit their 20-year marks. When that time comes, New Yorkers will understand just how much they need the 5,000 hires Mamdani plans to halt…