Speaker Julie Menin delivers opening remarks on NYPD budget priorities
Speaker Menin outlines NYPD's $6.6B planned budget, notes declines in murders and shootings but troubling increases in felony assaults and reported rapes, and raises questions about the Office of Community Safety, summer surge staffing, and recruitment.
Before I go any further, I'm going to invite Speaker Menon to share her opening remarks.
Thank you so much.
First of all, I want to thank you, Chair Lee, for conducting all of these budget hearings.
And I want to thank our Public Safety Chair, Chair Feliz, for your oversight of the Committee on Public Safety.
And welcome, Commissioner Tisch and everyone who is on your team who's here.
So to keep New Yorkers safe, the NYPD...
NYPD.
PD has a planned budget of $6.6 billion that supports 35,379
uniform and 13,386 civilian personnel in fiscal year 2027.
Today, we want to hear much more detail about whether and how the executive budget gives the police department the resources it needs to continue its efforts under your leadership.
The department has overseen a recent period of significant decline in both murders and shootings in the city,
which we are very pleased to see, but there are still some troubling increases in other major felony crime categories, like felony assaults hitting a 25-year high, as well as increases in reported rapes.
Reported hate crimes have also been increasing.
The proposed executive budget included new funding for the department, as well as transfers of funding from existing departments to create the Office of Community Safety.
I'm interested in hearing what, if any, programs are being shifted from NYPD's purview to the new OCS,
and if there are any changes to NYPD's community affairs work in anticipation of the new office's creation.
The Council is also interested to hear how decisions about resources and staffing impact crime levels, particularly with recent NYPD announcements about the summer surge, the Division of the Bronx into two.
to patrol boroughs and the introduction of 12-hour shifts for a majority of officers starting July 1st.
As always, recruitment and retention of police officers is also a prime concern.
These issues are important to drill down on because, of course, the ability to proactively respond to the city's public safety needs is determined in large part by the department's budget and the decisions on how to allocate resources.
So we look forward to a very productive hearing, and we want to thank you once again for being here and for your commitment to our city.
Thank you.