NYPD Cops Plan to Vote With Their Feet If Mamdani Wins

Can’t say as I blame New York’s Finest for feeling this way. Clearly, the feeling is mutual. And almost as clearly, the moment of truth is all but inevitable.

The Free Press’ Olivia Reingold reports that morale in the NYPD’s rank and file has plunged since the ascent of Zohran Mamdani in the mayoral race. Those ranks already have begun to shrink, even before the vote to replace Eric Adams takes place. With the heir apparent bringing his “defund the police” mentality and a plan to eliminate OT, police officers tell Reingold that they can take a hint from Big Apple voters:

The lieutenant said that he always thought he would stay on the police force for at least 25 years. Many cops say that if you stay for 25 or 30 years, you might never have to work another day in your life. The pension is that good. Now, he isn’t sure if it’s still worth it.

“It’s shaken me to my core,” he said of Mamdani’s unexpected victory in June. “The absolute dread I feel is palpable.”

Some days, his mind races with worst-case scenarios: “Is he going to cut a billion dollars out of our budget?” he wonders. “Will my caseload keep piling up while we just get more and more short-staffed?”

Reingold offers more anecdotal evidence of a potential Mamdani exodus, but the truth is that the exodus has been ongoing since the pandemic and the George Floyd riots. More than one officer pointed out that Bill de Blasio’s “reforms” in that moment made their jobs a lot more difficult, with more intrusive reviews and a lack of support from city officials. Many officers opted out at that point, taking their NYPD experience with them to more supportive — and less expensive — environments.

The expense is a key part of dissatisfaction. Right now, the lack of manpower requires the NYPD to use overtime for proper coverage in the nation’s largest city. While the workload is difficult, officers tell Reingold, the income is crucial for their ability to live where they work. However, Mamdani’s pledge to cut overtime makes them worry not just about public safety but also their ability to keep roofs over heads:

Cops that I talked to repeatedly mentioned another big fear about Mamdani that gets relatively little attention outside the NYPD.

“We need to bring down the NYPD’s near-billion-dollar overtime,” Mamdani told the New York Editorial Board, a group of veteran journalists, in February. “We need to eliminate that overtime.”

To get by with fewer officers, the NYPD relies on overtime, which is often mandated for officers even if they have already worked a full shift. Last year, the NYPD spent $1.1 billion on overtime wages, and the city council warned this year that the department is on track to surpass its overtime budget by over $100 million. Officers told me that they depend on overtime to live in New York City, where a family of four needs $318,406 to live comfortably, according to a survey last year.

The alternative to overtime would be to right-size the NYPD. Unfortunately, Mamdani’s more inclined to downsize the NYPD. Even if Mamdani agreed to expand hiring, however, the NYPD can’t find candidates to fill current openings now. Reingold gives an overview of NYPD’s recruitment efforts, and let’s just say that word has gotten around about the difficulties that New York’s Finest already face even without Mamdani. 

Will a potential exodus convince New Yorkers to choose more wisely? The polls do not offer much hope. The New York Times has a poll tracker for this race, and it’s been two months since Mamdani didn’t have a two-digit lead in any of them. 

So what happens now? Reingold’s prophecy is clear enough:

Law-and-order believers will hate that reality, but in truth, progressives should as well. If there is anything to learn from other American cities that elected progressive mayors, it is that any increase in crime has the potential to set the entire progressive project backward by convincing voters that liberals and disorder go hand in hand.

It’s not as if New Yorkers didn’t have examples in Chicago, Portland, Seattle, and Los Angeles. They are about to earn the experience that will come with radical-Left governance they earned the old-fashioned way … through the ballot box. 

Editor’s Note: Zohran Mamdani is an avowed Democratic Socialist and has a real chance to become the next mayor of New York City.

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