NYPD Begs Cops to Delay Leaving Force After 400 Percent Surge in Retirement Applications

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The New York Police Department is desperately trying to stem the exodus of its officers into retirement, as a surge of applications were submitted in the past week — more than quadrupling the number submitted during the same period last year.

According to a report by The New York Post, 503 cops have filed for retirement since May 25, the day George Floyd was killed by Minneapolis police and July 3. That’s a 75 percent increase over the same period in 2019, with 287 filing for unemployment.

The past week was an even larger surge of retirement applications: 179 cops filed for retirement between June 29 and Monday, compared to 35 in 2019, a 411 percent increase.

Floyd’s death, captured on now-viral cell phone video that sparked nationwide protests, led to calls for not just reforms to police departments but also significant changes in their funding.

The city recently cut a whopping $1 billion from the NYPD budget, leading to an immediate slashing of overtime. This had two deleterious effects on the department: encouraging more cops to decide they would rather retire early if there’s less opportunity to earn overtime wages, and reducing the number of available administrative staffers who can process retirement paperwork.

The Post reported seeing “a line of cops waiting outside the office” at the NYPD headquarters where retirement applications get filed. The office is only able to handle 35 to 40 applications a day, by appointment, and the requests are reportedly backed up through the end of the month or early August.

The NYPD is not officially turning down any retirement applications, but they have been asking officers to delay submitting their papers for another month.

Multiple cops spoke anonymously to the Post, complaining about poor morale and lack of support:

• “There’s just droves and droves of people retiring. But there’s no surprise here, who the hell wants to stay on this job?”
• “Why would you want to stay on this job when people don’t appreciate what you do?”
• “You have to be crazy to stay on a job where you are losing money, abused by the people you are trying to protect and not appreciated by the politicians.”
• “Why put your job on the line, when no one appreciates you or has your back?”

The problem is unlikely to resolve itself in the fall. New classes of police officers begin their duties in September each year, so another cohort is set to hit their 20 year mark, the minimum time for pension vestment, in just two short months.