Mayor Eric Adams: King of NY Official Thread

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NYPD overtime pay in the subway went from $4 million to $155 million this year

Subway crime is down slightly. Fare evasion tickets and arrests are way up.
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NYPD overtime pay in the subway went from $4 million to $155 million this year​




By Bahar Ostadan

Published Dec 21, 2023



NYPD policemen are seen at subway's station at Brooklyn, New York, United States, on October 25, 2022.

(Photo by Beata Zawrzel/NurPhoto via Getty Images)

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NYPD overtime pay for extra officers in the subway went from $4 million in 2022 to $155 million this year, according to city records obtained by Gothamist.

The new spending was part of a push by Mayor Eric Adams and Gov. Kathy Hochul to reduce crime and crack down on New Yorkers sleeping in the transit system – in part by flooding the subways with uniformed NYPD officers working overtime shifts.

The influx of officers corresponded to a 2% drop in what police call “major” crimes in the subway, including robbery, rape and murder. But the most marked effect of adding officers was a skyrocketing number of tickets and arrests for fare evasion. Police officials said they count that as a success.

NYPD Chief of Transit Michael Kemper said targeting fare jumpers saves the MTA money and brings “order” to the underground.

“It’s about correcting behavior,” Kemper said “Stopping fare evaders sets the tone of law and order.”

Kemper said more than 1,000 additional police officers patrolled the subway system every day this year. That’s on top of the 2,500 transit officers already working in the system in the NYPD’s $250 million transit bureau, he said.

Overall, there were 48 fewer serious crimes like murder, rape and robbery reported in the subway system this year than in 2022, according to NYPD data. The biggest change was 65 fewer reported robberies, where someone stole property by using force or the threat of force. There were also seven fewer reported rapes this year and four fewer murders, according to the newly released data shared with Gothamist.

Assaults were an exception, rising by 5%. There were 26 more assaults this year than 2022, according to data.

The boost in fare evasion tickets and arrests was far more stark. Officers made over 1,900 more arrests and issued 34,000 more summonses through September, up roughly 250% and 160% respectively from the same period last year, according to NYPD data.

Neither the mayor’s office nor the governor’s office responded to inquiries for this story.

Of the new $151 million in overtime pay, the state reimbursed the city for about $62 million as part of Adams' and Hochul’s initiative, which they dubbed Cops, Cameras and Care, according to Joshua Florsheim, the executive director of the Management and Budget Analysis Section of the NYPD.

Danny Pearlstein, policy and communications director for Riders Alliance, a transit advocacy group, said cracking down on fare evaders doesn’t reduce crime or solve the MTA’s budget woes.

“Policing fare evasion is not the way to solve the MTA's revenue problems,” Pearlstein said. “It’s primarily an issue of poverty.”

The vast majority of New Yorkers ticketed and arrested for fare evasion this year – 82% and 92% respectively – were not white, according to NYPD data. That’s a pattern that’s stayed consistent since 2017, when the NYPD first started publicly reporting fare evasion arrest data.

Black New Yorkers are 10% more likely now to be ticketed for fare evasion than they were six years ago.

Pearlstein said cracking down on fare evasion to curb general subway crime is like “searching for a needle in a haystack.” He also said there are only rare occasions when police will stop someone for fare evasion, search them, find a weapon and possibly prevent a more serious crime.

James Dooley, a former NYPD captain in the transit unit and assistant professor at John Jay College of Criminal Justice, said sending more police into the subways has limited utility.

“The department tends to knee-jerk and flood an area with uniforms,” Dooley said. “It’s not very cost effective and eventually, people who commit crimes simply go to other stations or other times.”

Subway riders interviewed by Gothamist had a range of feelings about seeing more police in the subway.

Maggie Malone of the Upper East Side said she’s frightened by media reports about crimes that happen in the subways. She said she likes seeing more police in the subway.

“We see all these interviews of people being thrown onto the train that are really scary,” she said.

Malone, who was riding through Times Square station with some friends last month, said she doesn’t feel safe being out late at night.

Shakim Coleman of Ocean Hill, Brooklyn said he feels harassed by the police, not protected.

“[Police officers] harass you for nothing,” he said at the Ralph Avenue station in Brooklyn. “They stand here waiting for someone to jump the turnstile when real stuff is happening on the trains.”
 
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The NYPD Spent $150 Million to Catch Farebeaters Who Cost the MTA $104,000 - Hell Gate

The massive increase coincided with just a two percent decrease in serious crime.
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The NYPD Spent $150 Million to Catch Farebeaters Who Cost the MTA $104,000​

The massive increase in overtime spending coincided with just a two percent decrease in serious crime.

9:40 AM EST on December 22, 2023

52530577963_4ac57d82d6_k.jpg

(Ed Reed / Mayoral Photography Office)



By Hell Gate

Happy holidays from Hell Gate! We're taking a short break from spewing, and we'll be back with your favorite daily news roundup on January 2.

Overtime pay for cops in New York's subway system increased from $4 million in 2022 to $155 million over the same period in 2023, according to an analysis by Gothamist.

If that sounds like an excessive amount of money to be spending on cops who are famously mostly on their phones or GETTING STURDY 😱👮🏼, that's probably because you don't believe in public safety. For your information, that extra $151 million in overtime spending, a nearly 4,000 percent cost increase and the result of adding 1,000 additional cops to patrol the subway system, bought us a whopping two percent decrease in "major" crime, amounting to a total of 48 fewer serious crimes like murder, rape, and robbery. The number of assaults on the subway, on the other hand, actually went up, raising the question of whether that decrease can even be attributed to the increased police presence underground.

What did all that extra spending actually bring us? An increase in fare evasion enforcement: According to Gothamist, there were 1,900 more fare evasion arrests and 34,000 more summonses through September, up roughly 250 percent and 160 percent from 2022. That's about $4,200 in NYPD overtime pay per arrest or summons, and $151 million to hassle people whose total unpaid fares only amounted to about $104,000. What a bargain! The enforcement, as usual, was disproportionately doled out to non-white straphangers.

NYPD Chief of Transit Michael Kemper told Gothamist that the negligible change in major crime rates belies the much more significant change of "tone" throughout the subway system. "It's about correcting behavior," Kemper said. "Stopping fare evaders sets the tone of law and order." A 151 million dollar vibe shift, if you will.

But even a former transit cop thinks having more officers in the subways is a waste of money.

"The department tends to knee-jerk and flood an area with uniforms," James Dooley, now an assistant professor at John Jay College of Criminal Justice, said. "It’s not very cost effective and eventually, people who commit crimes simply go to other stations or other times."

But while all those cops are down there, has anyone asked if they've got any tips for getting past level 10 of Geometry Dash?

Our tips for you, in the form of links:




 
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NYC councilmember says Adams tried to stop policing bill by horse-trading budget cuts. It failed.

Adams’ efforts came as he slashes funding for city services, including schools, libraries and parks, due to what his administration has called a fiscal crisis.
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NYC councilmember says Adams tried to stop policing bill by horse-trading budget cuts. It failed.​




By Elizabeth Kim
Published Dec 22, 2023
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New York City Mayor Eric Adams presides over a press conference at City Hall in Manhattan on Nov. 14, 2023.

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Mayor Eric Adams told at least one member of the City Council he would restore cuts to their favorite programs if they agreed to vote against a police transparency bill the mayor and NYPD officials vigorously opposed, according to four people familiar with conversations in the Council.

Adams’ attempts to horse-trade using the budget, which he has unique leverage over as mayor, come while the city is battling a fiscal crisis. But his efforts had limited impact on the outcome: The Council overwhelmingly passed the legislation Wednesday in a 35-9 vote — a veto-proof majority.

The bill, authored by Public Advocate Jumaane Williams and introduced with a majority of councilmembers as cosponsors, requires police officers to report all their investigative interactions with civilians, including low-level encounters not previously required to be tracked.

One councilmember said, before the vote, Adams and other administration officials floated restoring cuts in an area important to the lawmaker in exchange for a no vote on the legislation. The councilmember spoke to Gothamist on the condition their name and details of the mayor’s offer not be disclosed because it was a private conversation.

Another Council source who also spoke on the condition of anonymity out of respect for private conversations with lawmakers said several councilmembers told the source they were approached by Adams, who offered them funding for their pet initiatives or inquired about what kind of funding they wanted.

In a statement Friday, Adams’ office denied the administration made any such offers to councilmembers.

“What you shared is inaccurate,” said mayoral spokesperson Charles Lutvak. “The mayor did not offer to a councilmember to restore any budget cuts in exchange for a vote on Intro 586-A.”

News of Adams personally reaching out to councilmembers was first reported Wednesday in the New York Daily News, which cited Manhattan Councilmember Erik Bottcher as among those the mayor contacted. Bottcher initially sponsored the “How Many Stops” Act, but surprised his colleagues when he withdrew his support of the legislation Monday.

On Friday, Bottcher’s chief of staff Carl Wilson denied to Gothamist that there was any quid pro quo involved in the councilmember’s decision to vote against the legislation but confirmed Bottcher spoke with Adams the day before the vote.

The mayor and Council have been locked in a bitter battle over recent budget cuts. In November, Adams ordered broad cuts to city services, including schools, libraries and police, and has repeatedly said more cuts are in store because of financial pressures the city faces from the migrant crisis, expiring federal pandemic aid and slowing tax revenue growth.

Councilmembers responded by holding an 11-hour hearing this month where some grilled budget officials over whether the cuts were necessary, pointing to recent revenue projections that were less dire than initially forecast. But as mayor, Adams retains significant control over spending reductions throughout the fiscal year and will propose the city’s next budget in the coming months.

Administration officials estimate the city faces a $7 billion budget deficit, but a recent report by the Independent Budget Office, the city’s fiscal watchdog, found a much smaller gap of $1.8 billion next year.

Adams faces heavy criticism over the cuts from lawmakers and residents alike, with a Quinnipiac poll earlier this month finding the spending reductions were a factor in his abysmal approval ratings — the lowest of any NYC mayor in the history of the poll.

The mayor has blamed the cuts on the federal government’s alleged failure to provide sufficient funding and policy responses to the migrant crisis.

“I have to go into the agencies and find the money because the law tells me, Eric, every two years you have to balance the budget,” Adams said Thursday during a town hall with older residents in Brooklyn. “So when you look at these cuts that everybody's running around saying, ‘Well, don't cut here, don't cut here.’”

Adams staunchly opposed the NYPD transparency legislation, saying it would burden officers with additional paperwork and undermine public safety. Supporters of the changes said they would curb biased policing and improve oversight.

Adams has 30 days from the Council’s vote to decide whether to veto the bill. Should he issue a veto, the Council can override it with a two-thirds majority.

The “How Many Stops” Act had broad support from criminal justice advocates, who said the new rules would check racially biased policing by requiring police to report demographic information about people they stop, including their perceived race and ethnicity. The NYPD has long faced accusations of racial bias but has said it’s taken steps in recent years to police communities more equitably.

Many LGBTQ advocates backed the legislation, pointing to an ugly history of police violence against members of their community. Bottcher, who dropped his support from the measures, is a member of the Council’s LGBTQ Caucus and represents Chelsea and Greenwich Village, home of the Stonewall Uprising that launched the LGBTQ rights movement in the U.S.

While Wednesday’s bill passed by a comfortable margin, Bottcher’s no vote puzzled many other councilmembers and political observers.

Asked about his conversations with Adams and whether the mayor offered him any incentive to change his mind, Bottcher sent Gothamist a statement saying he had “serious concerns” about the bill and had asked the Council to consider a pilot program first.

“My decision was informed by conversations with my NYCHA tenant leaders who strongly oppose this bill, District Attorneys Alvin Bragg and Darcel Clarke, and many other New Yorkers who think it’s a big gamble at a time when public safety is at the forefront of people’s minds,” the statement read.

“Any suggestion that horse trading was involved is categorically false,” it added. “I certainly would have benefited more by voting for the bill, especially as committee assignments are being decided at the Council, but I was elected to do what I think is right — not what benefits me politically.”

Allen Roskoff, a local gay rights activist, said he was disappointed by the councilmember’s vote.

“It is a gay issue, especially for LGBTQ people of color,” Roskoff told Gothamist. “I wish he had voted differently.”
 
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