NYPD Spending Ticks Down In Mayor's Safety-Focused $99B Budget

NEW YORK, NY — A $98.5 billion spending plan from Mayor Eric Adams will not spare the police department from budget cuts, despite his his administration's focus on a public safety "emergency," according to budget documents.

The mayor's budget proposal — which he says reduces spending by $2 billion — includes a $252 million cut to the NYPD's $5.7-billion operating budget, which has faced tense debate over the last few years amid a reckoning on police brutality.

The dip comes as Adams vows to cut the fat across city agencies, who he asked to each reduce their budgets by 3 percent going into the next fiscal year.

"We must push back against government waste and inefficiency," Adams said Wednesday. "As we build back from two years of uncertainty and trauma, we must ensure our finances promote growth and resilience for the long term."

The mayor told reporters at a press briefing, held before the before line-item breakdown was released, that the NYPD budget would stay "basically flat" given a focus on rising crime in the city.

Adams' administration is in the midst of analyzing the police force's staff and whether "hundreds of officers doing clerical work" could be better used to increase patrols without more spending, the mayor said.

Public safety has been at the forefront of Adams' reign, including a Blueprint To End Gun Violence released earlier this year.

"That’s the number one concern right now: public safety," he said. "I know that in previous years people called for defunding police … we’re going to reach a place that we won’t have to spend as much, [but] we’re dealing with the emergency that we’re facing."

The proposed city budget includes several proposals Adams has highlighted earlier this week, including a $79 million expansion to the city's summer job program for young New Yorkers.

The expansion will mean 100,000 summer jobs will be available to those ages 14 to 24 in an effort to engage young people who might participate in violence.

The spending plan, which will head next to City Council, also makes a city program that offers discounted MetroCards permanent.

The city workforce was reduced by about 10,000 after municipal agencies removed vacant positions from their payrolls, Adams said.

The preliminary budget also calls for adding $6 billion into the city's reserves, the largest amount in its history, to protect the city from the "uncertainties" of coronavirus and resultant economic instability, according to Adams.

Only 55 percent of jobs lost during the pandemic have been restored in New York City, compared to 84 percent nationwide, the mayor said. The omicron surge also led to a huge dip in the number of businesses preparing to send workers back to the office.

"Our city is facing a transformative moment," Adams said. "We must do more than get back to normal. We must build a better city in the process."