NYPD Preferential Treatment Denounced at Hearing On Mayor’s Financial Plan

The New York City Council today held an oversight hearing that focused on Mayor Adams’ November financial plan. The current financial plan is expected to increase the fiscal year 2024 NYPD budget by $135 million (a 2.3% increase over the already enormous budget approved in June) while making drastic cuts to libraries, universal pre-K, affordable housing programs, parks, community schools, youth programs and other programs. 

Several Councilmembers asked the administration questions about what seems to be preferential treatment of the NYPD budget and the seeming unwillingness of the administration to hold the NYPD accountable for years of annual budget over-runs. Staff from the Mayor’s Office of Management & Budget (OMB) were largely non-responsive to these questions, referring to the November PEG (Program to Eliminate the Gap) without addressing the inequitable cuts or the NYPD’s exemption from the upcoming January PEG. 

Communities United for Police Reform members and partners from the Justice Committee, Make the Road New York, Legal Defense Fund, Katal, Freedom Agenda and others testified to call for real public safety through investment in infrastructure and community safety solutions and reducing reliance on criminalization and policing. Testimony from CPR members and partners can be found here. 

“It's unconscionable that Mayor Adams keeps slashing core services that New Yorkers need to survive while shielding the NYPD's bloated budget and investing in nonsense like robodogs and robot cops," said Divad Durant, CPR spokesperson and Justice Committee leader. "While libraries, pre-K, composting and community schools are being cut, the NYPD's current budget is set to increase by almost $135 million. The NYPD routinely blows its annual budget without consequence, even while refusing to fire cops who kill, brutalize and sexually harass New Yorkers. It's time to end this preferential treatment that emboldens abusive policing and invest in the non-police infrastructure and programs New Yorkers need for safer and healthier communities."

In October, local media reported that abusive cops are all too common and cost the city millions in lawsuit settlements. Last year, the city spent $120 million on these payouts rather than investing in housing, health care or other vital social services. This year, it’s expected that the city will once again payout over $100 million for NYPD misconduct.  

City agencies and programs are already struggling to meet the needs of homeless New Yorkers or support New Yorkers living with mental health issues. Schools are struggling to fill the gaps left by the mayor’s summer budget cuts, and all city agencies are struggling to function effectively because crucial positions have been left unfilled. The November budget cuts are the fifth round of budget cuts under Mayor Adams and are worsening the city’s safety net programs and are preventing New Yorkers from accessing services needed to survive, such as food stamps. The NYPD is being shielded from these budget cuts, while critical services are being gutted in the current year. 

"The fact that the Mayor is slashing the education budget by 1 billion dollars over the next two years is totally unacceptable," said Camilla Vaquero, a Community School student and youth leader with Make the Road New York and the Urban Youth Collaborative. "We already have the largest school police force in the entire country. Cutting school budgets while at the same time hiring more school cops tells us students clearly that the Mayor doesn’t care about us and shows us what his priorities are."

“New Yorkers rely on many crucial public services for their housing, education, employment, health, and safety needs. Unfortunately, these are the same services that are being gutted in ways that will disproportionately impact Black communities, while the NYPD's funding remains largely protected,” said Legal Defense Fund’s Justice in Public Safety Legal Fellow David Moss. “Once again, we call on City Council to prioritize the lives and livelihoods of New Yorkers by preserving these essential services over the NYPD’s already outsized budget.”

ADDITIONAL QUOTES:

Yonah Zeitz, Director of Advocacy at the Katal Center for Equity, Health, and Justice, said: "NYC is facing a leadership crisis, not a budget crisis. Amid a growing number of scandals - including the dumpster fire that is Rikers Island -- Mayor Adams is cutting the budgets for schools, housing, libraries, alternative to incarceration programs, and more, but maintaining the bloated budgets of the NYPD and DOC. The mayor must cut the wasteful spending on arresting and caging people, and instead shut down the Rikers Island Jail Complex and invest in real community safety: housing, health care, education, and jobs."

Darren Mack, Co-Director of Freedom Agenda, said: "The Mayor’s budget cuts would have devastating impacts for our members, as they would for many other New Yorkers who are struggling find quality housing, healthcare, childcare, jobs, and education opportunities, while the resources available to arrest and jail them seem to be limitless."

Abdul Nasser Rad from Campaign Zero, said: "Equitable and just budgets are necessary for public safety reinvention. Mayor Adams’s proposed budget will have far reaching and severe consequences for safety and sends a troubling message that NYC prefers punitive measures over restorative ones. Library access, expansion of universal pre-K, after school programs, and affordable housing programs are not luxuries; they are fundamental to the safety and health of communities."