NYC lawmakers push City Hall to restore NYPD academy classes following cop’s shooting death
Mayor Eric Adams is facing calls to restore next year’s police academy classes to beef up the NYPD’s dwindling ranks following the line-of-duty shooting death of hero cop Jonathan Diller.
In a letter sent to Adams and NYPD Commissioner Edward Caban Wednesday, City Councilman Robert Holden said it was “urgent” that City Hall — which has remained mum on the scrapped police classes — detail its plans.
“I am seeking a detailed account of the administration’s plans for police recruitment,” Holden (D-Queens) wrote in the letter, obtained by The Post.
“My constituents are eager to understand the steps being taken to accelerate the hiring process, the schedule for upcoming police classes and any initiatives being taken to attract a qualified pool of candidates,” Holden said.
At issue are four police academy classes initially scheduled for 2025 but canceled earlier this year as the city faced a projected budget crunch due to the burgeoning migrant crisis.
Last month, Adams cited “better-than-expected” revenues and scrapped planned cutbacks.
City Hall has since reinstated next month’s academy class — but the four that had been scheduled for next year remain in limbo.
Following Diller’s cowardly shooting in Queens on Monday — allegedly by a pair of dangerous ex-cons — legislators want to know when more cops will be on the streets to curtail violent crime.
“The council maintains that none of the proposed blunt cuts were necessary,” council finance Chairman Justin Brannan (D-Bay Ridge) told The Post on Wednesday. “We expect to see full restorations across the board and then some.”
Each academy class has about 600 recruits, which would beef up the NYPD’s shrinking ranks in recent years due to attrition and moves to slower-paced suburban departments.
The new influx of young cops would help restore the ranks and keep the department from dipping under 30,000 sworn members for the first time since the 1990s.
But Adams has been so silent on the 2025 academy classes, that some council members and staffers weren’t even aware that they hadn’t already been reinstated.
The projected draconian cuts in the city’s $109.4 billion spending plan were required to offset the $10 billion expected to be sapped by the migrant crisis, which has forced taxpayers to foot the bill for thousands of asylum seekers arriving from the US border with Mexico over the past two years.
Last month, Adams announced that the NYPD, FDNY and the Department of Corrections would be spared further cuts — but never reinstated the 2025 police academy classes.
Following Diller’s shooting death on Monday, Adams, a former NYPD captain, denounced what he called the “senseless act of violence” that cost the 31-year-old cop his life.
“I cannot say it any clearer,” he said. “It is the good guys against the bad guys and these bad guys are violent.”
A City Hall spokesperson said the mayor plans to add “thousands” of officers to the NYPD this year, but did not say whether next year’s canceled academy classes would be restored in a statement to The Post.
“Jobs are up, crime is down, and Mayor Adams is delivering for working New Yorkers every day — and as he has repeatedly said, our administration will never do anything to jeopardize public safety,” the spokesperson said.
“The mayor has been very clear that public safety is the prerequisite to prosperity, and that’s why we have plans to continue adding thousands of additional cops to New York City streets through November and will continue to evaluate between now and the Executive Budget to determine if there are any other areas where we can restore more funding.”
