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June 4, 2020 By Allie Griffin
The New York City Comptroller is calling on Mayor Bill de Blasio to slash more than $1 billion from the NYPD budget over four years — as the city faces a looming fiscal crisis and many are calling for police reform.
Comptroller Scott Stringer penned a letter to de Blasio today requesting he cut $1.1 billion from the NYPD budget over the next four years.
Stringer said the city must act to fight systemic racism within law enforcement, beginning with the budget.
“Breaking down structural racism in New York City will require long-term, lasting change — and that must include reducing the NYPD’s budget,” he said in a statement.
He made the request as New York City is facing a whopping $9 billion deficit due to the economic fallout of the coronavirus. De Blasio has proposed cutting the NYPD’s current $5.9 billion budget by just 0.31 percent, Stringer said.
He said some of the money taken from the department should be redistributed to underserved communities most impacted by police brutality and ravaged by COVID-19. It would also help the city to stave off cuts to other essential services amid the deficit.
Stringer said his plan involves cutting the NYPD budget by 5 percent each year, or about $265 million, beginning July 1. The savings could be achieved through modest cuts to the number of cops and cutting overtime and other expenses such as equipment and technology.
Stringer has been calling for all city agencies to cut their budgets by 4 percent as a means to help the city manage the deficit.
The comptroller said the city should suspend hiring new police classes in the next fiscal year and cut uniformed overtime by five percent.
The move would reduce the number of officers through attrition by 3 percent — bringing the expected headcount down to 35,000 officers by the end of next fiscal year. The number of officers on the street averaged about 35,000 between 2011 and 2016 when crime declined to historic levels, Stringer said.
A group of more than 200 current and former mayoral staffers have also called on the mayor to slash the NYPD budget. They wrote an open letter calling for de Blasio to cut the budget by $1 billion in fiscal year 2021 alone.
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12 Comments
Open the gun stores, we’re gonna need them. Let’s return to the 70s, 80s and early 90s, when the pandering politicians and mob rule turned this city into an unlivable $hithole.
And yet we keep voting this politicians in. Stinger “calling”on deBlasio to cut budgets for essential services while approving money on new borough jails and sweetheart deals is a joke. Millions$ unaccounted for in government programs. Stringer is directly responsible. Most council, assembly, judges, lawmakers have the same agenda as deBlasio, normalizing criminal behavior, stopped doing anything for law abiding residents. Complaining is easy, how about checking what our local politicians did and what they support. Show up the the polls and vote accordingly. Now they are all taking about mass wide mail voting, can you spell VOTERFRAUD.
Our mayor is insane
We need the police to protect us
NYC politicians are beyond horrible. If your going to cut the budget to the police do us a favor and make the permit/purchasing of firearms easier and less expensive so we can protect ourselves.
So the idea is to defund NYPD though they are stretched thin, to account for COVID losses in ‘communities affected by police brutality’? Yet, these are the communities in sore need of good policing? Makes complete sense!
These same people will be complaining there aren’t enough police to protect them when mob rule truly starts. What we have now are just the hors d’oeuvres.
Sorry, Scott is not going to protect OUR neighborhoods. He most likely has private protection that protect him and his family.
Larry, agree he is not Mayor material.
Are we woke enough ? Stringer is another one who has a cushy job on the public dime
Tom Cotton said “woke mob” yesterday, ugh what a cringe
Never shy around a camera or microphone, NYC Comptroller and 2021 Mayoral wanna be Scott Stringer can stop wasting taxpayers dollars issuing a series of useless audits and reports including those critical of the MTA and various municipal agencies. What he will not tell you is that he travels around town by car with driver and police security detail rather than a bus or subway. Give up your police security detail and municipal vehicle. Unlike the millions of New Yorkers, he doesn’t own a Metro Card and use public transportation on a daily basis. Do as I say, not as I do is his motto. With term limits, Stringer is just another term limited career politician using the NYC Comptroller’s office perks current position while seeking yet another public office. As a former State Assembly member, Manhattan Borough President and currently NYC Comptroller — he has never worked an honest day in his life.
Larry Penner
Like I said… a state that feeds you all you want can starve you by night fall. When seconds count and the non-existent police are hours away, you’ll need to protect your family, friends and neighbors. Choose ways to protect yourself wisely.