Police officers around the country are standing up in protest over vaccine mandates while others are just ready to call it quits after months of negative press, disrespect from lawmakers, and public contempt. The job has become such a burden that more than half of the New York City Police Department said if they could do it over again, they would have never joined the force, according to an internal poll.
“My retirement date is next month,” said a 20-year veteran known only as Dan. “I can’t wait to run out of here.” Being a police officer runs in the blood, but Dan said he steered his son away from the calling that had been passed down for generations. The job, he said, has hit “rock bottom.” He added, “The city is absolutely not safe at all. Bail reform. Criminals being released. Everyone knows what’s going on.”
In March, the City Council passed reforms for the department that included an end to providing qualified immunity for officers, which used to protect them against civil lawsuits. After the death of George Floyd, the left’s anti-law enforcement zeal led to defunding police departments. Black Lives Matter protests added gasoline to the fire and bail reform laws kept violent offenders on the streets instead of in jail, while putting the burden of liability on peace officers. A 16-year-veteran sergeant of the NYPD explained:
“There is no other profession that is scrutinized as much as we are. The far-left leaning politics are absolutely destroying the city of New York.”
(Photo by Yana Paskova/Getty Images)
The internal survey of the department reached out to 5,935 officers in March. A whopping 79% said they don’t think the city will be safer in two years. Eighty percent of those questioned said they feared aggressively fighting crime because of being liable, sued, or disciplined unfairly. Fifty-six percent of the participants said they wouldn’t become a cop if they had to do it all over again, and a majority said they feel the public disrespects and distrusts them. While police and neighborhoods depend on each other for support, 73% of the officers said the public does not have a good relationship with the department.
Joseph Giacalone, a former NYPD sergeant and adjunct professor at John Jay College of Criminal Justice said Mayor-elect Eric Adams will have a lot on his plate:
“This doesn’t look good for Adams. Not only is he inheriting a lot of bad legislation from the City Council and Albany, it sounds like he’s getting an apathetic police department.
“I don’t blame the cops. DAs that don’t prosecute, feckless politicians, removal of [enforcement of] quality-of-life crimes. What can they do? Damned if you do and damned if you don’t.”
Of the officers surveyed, 73% said “outstanding” cops fail to “receive appropriate recognition” and 78% said they don’t feel the department is supportive of them. Police Benevolent Association President Patrick Lynch told the New York Post that the poll results “should surprise nobody.” He continued:
“New York City police officers are well past our breaking point, and Mayor de Blasio and the outgoing City Council are still piling on with policies that punish cops and erode public safety. The intolerable environment and our substandard pay has every cop looking to get out as soon as they can. Our new leaders have a real mess to clean up. They need to start by supporting the beleaguered cops on the street.”
However, this isn’t the first sign of discord inside the NYC department. Another internal survey in 2016 showed the vast majority of officers disliked their jobs and even pointed to Mayor Bill de Blasio, saying their job was much safer before he took office. At that time, cops rated morale within the department at an average of just 2.49 on a scale of one to ten.
With vaccine mandates and the defunding of police, officers have been looking for greener – or should we say “redder” – pastures. Lakeland, FL, with a population of 108,000, mounted a social media campaign trying to hire more officers and managed to get 14 from the Big Apple. How many more police officers will New York City lose?
~ Read more from Kelli Ballard.
