“Deluding Cops” (Editorial, Nov. 19) speaks to cops’ expectations, so let me tell you what police officers expect.
We expect the city of New York to obey the Taylor Law and to pay police a salary that is comparable to what other local professional police departments earn.
We expect to be able to live decently, not luxuriously, in the city that we protect on our police salary.
We expect to earn as much as police officers in Jersey City, Newark, Yonkers and Elizabeth – all places with a lower median income and lower real property values.
We expect the city to heed three separate mayoral commissions that called for higher police salaries, and we expect the city to have enough police officers fighting crime on our streets by offering a fair wage that will keep our veteran officers on the job while attracting qualified new recruits.
We expect the city of New York, with its multibillion-dollar-budget surplus, to make an investment in this city’s future by paying police what the Taylor Law calls a “fair and reasonable wage.”
Patrick J. Lynch
President, PBA Manhattan