They’re calling it a cop out.
Mayor DeBlasio’s updated four-year financial plan doesn’t boost the police department’s uniformed head count, but critics say the mayor has to grow the force to keep pace with the city’s rising population — especially in neighborhoods like Coney Island where violence remains a problem.
“If the city is growing — and the mayor boasts of it — we need to increase the budget for the NYPD,” said Councilman Mark Teryger (D–Coney Island). “There have to be more police officers.”
There are currently 34,483 uniformed officers on the force, and the mayor plans to keep that level static through June 2018, according to an updated financial plan released Nov. 25. Maintaining the force’s current size will reduce the number of police per capita as the population continues to grow, say critics. In 2000, there were 202 New Yorkers for every police officer — in 2014 there were 244 people per cop, according to census data.
Even the raw numbers are at record lows, according to another councilman.
“There are 6,000 fewer police officers patrolling our streets than there were on Sept. 11, 2001,” said Councilman Vincent Gentile (D–Bay Ridge). “Indeed, I don’t recall the head counts in the precincts in my district ever being lower than they are today.”
Not hiring additional police will have a negative impact on Coney Islanders, according to locals who say they need more police to quell rising violence in the neighborhood’s impoverished residential sections. The People’s Playground saw a bloody summer and a fall full of gunfire.
The neighborhood has seen a “razor thin decrease” in shooting incidents, according to 60th Precinct commanding officer Deputy Inspector James Rooney, with 21 so far this year and 22 this time last year. But, several recent incidents that left locals with bullet holes in homes do not count toward that statistic because bullets didn’t strike anyone, according to police and lawmakers. Patrols vary, but there are typically five to six cars working the beat in each precinct, police said.
One Mermaid Avenue homeowner and neighborhood leader whose home has been caught in neighborhood crossfire longed for the days when the police were a common sight on city street corners.
“Growing up, we always had the police on the beat — they knew who we were and we knew who they were,” said Pamela Pettyjohn.
