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Council questions NYPD hiring, pay and civilian staffing amid budget hearing
Summary
At a City Council public‑safety budget hearing, NYPD leaders and council members debated recent hiring gains, officer pay and overtime, and shortfalls in civilian roles — including school safety agents, 911 operators and crossing guards — while officials defended new training and neighborhood safety deployments.
New York City Council members questioned NYPD leaders at a public‑safety preliminary budget hearing about officer hiring totals, pay, overtime and persistent gaps in civilian public‑safety roles.
The department told the committee it reported net changes of +758 officers in calendar year 2025, +12 in 2024 and −280 in 2023. On pay, officials said the starting police salary is $55,942, rising to $57,976 after 18 months and reaching $109,352 after 5½ years. The department said officers averaged roughly $26,000 in overtime in 2025; combining base pay and overtime produced a frequently cited illustrative total near $129,000.
Council Member Camila Hanks pressed whether a plan to reduce 300 city positions would remove uniform officers from Staten Island; officials said there were no plans to cut Staten Island posts and promised precinct‑level staffing figures. Hanks also asked about the neighborhood safety teams (NST) and community response teams (CRT). Officials said NSTs include about 356 officers and boroughwide CRTs about 173 staffers, and that NSTs are deployed to roughly 35 of the city’s most violent precincts.
“Neighborhood safety teams go after gun violence,” Chief Leetri said, describing a vetting standard that typically requires at least three years’ service and praising the unit’s role in last year’s decline in shootings.
Council members also pressed civilian headcounts. For school safety agents the department cited a budgeted headcount (including assistant agents and supervisors) in the testimony and said it currently has about 476 vacancies — roughly 12% of the title — and has created a new assistant school safety agent title with a starting salary just over $37,000 to broaden recruitment. First deputy staff said the department increased the number of civil‑service exam administrations for that title from two to four annually to speed hiring and that average monthly attrition in the title has been about 37 during the fiscal year.
Police communications (911) staffing remains short of budgeted levels, officials said: the budgeted headcount for police communications technicians is 1,412, with a gap of roughly 125 positions; a new academy class expected in the coming weeks is projected to add about 100 trainees.
On crossing guards the department said it employed 2,123 Level‑1 guards as of March 1 (about 100 below a budgeted 2,219) and 78 Level‑2 guards (12 fewer than budgeted). On equipment, officials said the NYPD has requested budget funding to replace auxiliary officers’ ballistic vests.
The hearing included repeated exchanges about whether overtime is primarily a function of headcount. The department answered that a large share of overtime arises from irregular public‑facing events — parades and details — and while staffing plays a role, it is not the sole driver.
The committee followed the NYPD testimony with questioning on response times and operational decisions, and a fuller second round covering borough‑level allocations, training and plans for a split Bronx patrol borough. Officials said they will supply requested precinct staffing numbers after the hearing.
What happens next: council members signaled they will press budget staff for line‑item detail on civilian titles and follow up on the requested precinct staffing numbers for Staten Island and the Bronx.
