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Q&A
NYPD staffing levels and resource allocation to improve response times
2:51:41
ยท
4 min
Commissioner Tisch addresses Council Member Restler's concerns about increased response times by explaining the department's strategies to improve the situation. She discusses the relationship between staffing levels, resource allocation, and response times, outlining several initiatives to address the issue.
- Tisch emphasizes returning officers from desk jobs to precincts and increasing recruitment efforts to exceed attrition rates.
- She mentions reorienting the department's focus to include response times for crimes in progress and critical crimes as key performance metrics.
- Tisch explains that the disproportionate increase in response times was partly due to policy decisions about officer assignments, which are now being corrected.
- She commits to putting the department on a trajectory for improvement but cautions that significant changes may not be immediately visible due to the time required for hiring and training new officers.
Jessica Tisch
2:51:41
It's very much on our radar, and it is directly linked to the staffing levels in our precincts and our PSAs, which is why among the major priorities of the past few months have been two things.
2:52:00
First, returning officers from desk jobs into the precincts.
2:52:05
The more sector cars that we can put out on a tour, the faster our response times will be.
2:52:12
The second, as I think we've gone into at length at this hearing, has been around recruitment and making sure that we are not just meeting attrition but that we are exceeding attrition in our hiring.
2:52:26
But the third thing that I don't think I've addressed here is NYPD collects a lot of data, as many agencies do.
2:52:36
But we all know that it matters what data and what metrics the department is really looking at and focusing at.
2:52:46
And I think for too long the focus has been only on or largely on the seven major crimes where it's like, yes, obviously need to keep looking at that.
2:52:57
But there are other metrics in 2025 that are very important for us to use to judge our performance on.
2:53:04
And one of them happens to be response times.
2:53:08
I wouldn't do response times around all crimes, but I would do response times around specifically crimes in progress and critical crimes in progress because I think that those are the most meaningful metrics for people waiting for a police response.
2:53:28
And so we are reorienting the department around those additional to be focused on those additional metrics as a daily, weekly, monthly judge of our performance.
Lincoln Restler
2:53:43
I am grateful that you're focused on it and grateful that it is a priority for you and for the department.
2:53:51
I struggle a bit that a three point something percent variation in uniform staffing levels is leading to a 40% increase in response times.
2:53:59
I don't I'm just it's that's a hard thing.
Jessica Tisch
2:54:02
Me too.
2:54:02
But it wasn't just the reduction in the uniform staffing levels.
2:54:05
It's where those officers were assigned.
2:54:08
And not enough priority was placed on our patrol commands.
2:54:13
And so we had officers working in specialized units and those specialized units, their staffing was up 300% or something wild.
2:54:24
And so what we're doing is reprioritizing the response commands and returning our officers to those commands.
2:54:33
Because you're right, the increase in response times was not proportional to the decrease in staffing.
2:54:42
Some of it was policy decisions about where officers should be assigned.
Lincoln Restler
2:54:46
That is exactly the answer I was looking for.
2:54:48
So do you think that we will begin to see this fiscal year significant improvements in response times as you smartly put officers where they should be?
Jessica Tisch
2:54:56
What I will say is I plan to put us on a trajectory to reap the benefits of it.
2:55:04
I don't know if it will hit this year because we're doing a huge amount of hiring now.
2:55:10
Hiring takes six months per class.
2:55:12
We have a lot of retirements, but we will continue to focus the limited resources that we have, the officers that we have on patrol commands and response commands and make sure that that is where the energy and the manpower go.
2:55:31
But I can't guarantee you that you will see a turnaround based on that this year.
2:55:37
Certainly in years to come, these decisions that we are making now will be quite fruitful.
Lincoln Restler
2:55:43
Okay.
2:55:44
Can I be allowed one more question or am I in trouble?
2:55:47
Speed it up.
2:55:48
I'm in always in trouble, that's true.
2:55:49
That doesn't change.
2:55:52
I really appreciate it.
2:55:53
I I hope that the focus on quality of life and misdemeanor and summons issues don't distract from that key priority.
Jessica Tisch
2:55:59
Certainly not.