Chair Feliz delivers opening remarks on NYPD budget and public safety

Thank you, Chair Lee.

Good morning, everyone.

I'm Councilmember Oswald Feliz, Chair of the Committee on Public Safety.

I would like to welcome everyone to the Fiscal Year 2027 Executive Budget Hearing.

I want to thank Speaker Manin and Chair Lee for joining us today.

Today we'll discuss the fiscal 2027 executive budget for the New York City Police Department to understand the administration's budget proposals for a department that plays a crucial role in public safety.

I'm interested in learning about the changes in the NYPD's $6.59 billion budget and discussing issues related to headcount, overtime, state subway funding,

school safety agents and crossing guards, technology to deter crime such as the use of drones, and much more.

I would also like to explore the department's plans to ensure fan safety for big upcoming events like the World Cup and the NBA Finals.

On the NYPD, we are thankful for

for the work and the sacrifices that police officers make every day to keep New Yorkers safe.

Public safety, as we know, is a shared responsibility.

We achieve it with good schools, good jobs, and opportunity.

Police officers play an important role in this issue.

They help ensure that residents can engage in these activities, work, school, and opportunity, without having to worry about their safety.

We're thankful for that.

Their dedication to this city does not go unnoticed.

Yesterday, for example, I saw a video of police officers in the Bronx in the 48th precinct running towards two individuals who had just engaged in gun violence.

Police officers who ran towards danger and used technology such as drones to quickly apprehend them.

That incident serves as an example of how a strong police presence and technology, such as drones, can ensure that there is fast accountability, accountability that helps deter crime.

We also saw that same courage earlier this year when police officers ran towards an ignited homemade explosive that was thrown to harm others at a protest.

They risked their own lives without hesitation to keep others safe.

Our communities are thankful for these police officers, and we're also better off because of their hard work and sacrifices.

There are many important budget actions in this plan, and we hope to better understand them and the impact that they'll have on public safety.

I look forward to productive conversations on what's going well, for example, shootings and murders being at record lows.

We also look forward to discussing the areas that need

attention, including the skyrocketing costs related to overtime.

Skyrocketing costs that are still going as high as almost a billion dollars, or specifically $955 million projected this fiscal year, according to a recent article by Political, but of course we'll hear the official numbers from the NYPD

soon.

I also want to thank our Public Safety Committee staff for their hard work, our financial analysts, Owen Kotowski and Casey Leitsky, policy analysts Chad Benjamin, committee councils Jeremy Whiteman and Josh Kingsley.

I also want to thank my staff, my chief of staff, Espranza Diaz, and my legislative director and many others who have joined today.

And I would also like to welcome the NYPD leadership team.

Welcome, Commissioner and team.

We look forward to conversations today.

I'm going to pass it back to Charity now.