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AGENCY TESTIMONY
NYPD hiring crisis and recruitment policy changes
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Commissioner Tisch addresses the NYPD's current hiring crisis and outlines changes to recruitment policies aimed at attracting more qualified candidates.
- Acknowledgment of significant drop in NYPD headcount, from 37,000 officers in 2018 to 33,000 currently
- Recent changes to educational requirements, reducing college credit requirement from 60 to 24
- Increase in college credits earned in the police academy from 36 to 45
- Reinstatement of physical fitness requirements, including the mile and a half run
Jessica Tisch
0:28:48
The NYPD is in a hiring crisis.
0:28:51
This is not a budget problem.
0:28:52
Mayor Adams has given us all the resources that we need and greenlit every class we wanted to bring in, but the applicants are just not there.
0:29:00
It was not that long ago when people would wait years to get the call to join the academy and every incoming class was at capacity.
0:29:08
Now we are practically begging people to take the exam and when they pass we are scrambling to get them hired as quickly as possible.
0:29:16
So what happened?
0:29:18
First and foremost we are still seeing very real impact of the defund and anti police movements which created a public discourse that devalued our officers and their profession.
0:29:28
A lot of the rhetoric aimed at our police is vile and the pendulum has swung too far away from what I consider to be the most important and noble job that anyone could do and we must swing it back because it's quite simple.
0:29:41
More cops on patrol make our city safer.
0:29:44
In 2018, the NYPD had 37,000 uniformed officers for a city of more than 8,000,000 people.
0:29:49
Now we have 33,000, an 11% drop in head count over seven years.
0:29:55
We need to bring the head count up and we started with the new class of more than 1,000 recruits sworn in two months ago.
0:30:01
It was the largest recruit class in nearly a decade but these much needed additions are just the beginning.
0:30:06
We know that we have more work to do.
0:30:09
Part of that work is continually evaluating our staffing policies and making changes to improve the way we recruit, hire and train our officers.
0:30:16
Previously the NYPD required at least 60 college credits to enter the academy which is a higher standard than most peer agencies who do not require any college at all.
0:30:26
In 2023, this requirement led to the disqualification of 29% of NYPD applicants, meaning we turned away 2,275 potential officers.
0:30:37
We could not afford to do that any longer.
0:30:40
So in line with similar decisions that Mayor Adams made last year to recruit more municipal workers, I made the difficult decision to reduce the credit requirement from 60 down to 24.
0:30:52
At the same time, we have increased the college credits earned in the police academy from 36 up to 45.
0:30:58
Along with increased academic rigor in the academy, we raised the physical standards as well.
0:31:03
With the mayor's support, we reinstated the mile and a half requirement, putting more focus on our officers health and fitness.
0:31:12
I know these changes will allow the NYPD to recruit more quality candidates to service police officers while increasing the physical standards and maintaining academic rigor that continue to surpass what most other police departments require.
0:31:25
At the end of the day, I want this to be a job that our officers are proud of and their families are proud of and one that they want to pass down to future generations.
0:31:35
There was a time when policing was the family business and it needs to be again.
0:31:40
As we go about our vital work keeping New Yorkers safe, I can promise you that the NYPD is going to follow the law.
0:31:46
Federal law, state law, city law and the court orders that bind us.
0:31:50
That means that we are not going to engage in civil immigration enforcement period.
0:31:56
That means that despite our objections to the How Many Stops Act, we will meet its requirements.
0:32:01
That means that we will protect protesters First Amendment right to speak however hateful that speech may be.
0:32:09
That means that we are recommitted to meeting the mandates of the stop, question, and frisk monitorship through compliance stat, through a fourteenth amendment compliance plan that was long overdue, and through the accountability and discipline that are warranted when we fall short.
0:32:25
The NYPD is not perfect, but we will hold ourselves to the highest standards of legality and of integrity that befit the greatest police department in the world.