Tisch explains headcount growth and shooting reduction strategy

So first, just some background on the headcount of the department.

Actually, in this budget, the NYPD has received 580

new police officer positions, bringing our budgeted headcount up to 35,555.

And so that is something to be celebrated and that is something that we appreciate deeply, especially in a time of general need to cut.

And I will also say we have a hiring plan this year that should get us to our budgeted headcount of 35,555 by the end of this year.

So last year was our most aggressive year in hiring on record, and we are keeping our foot on the gas this year, and we plan to do a significant amount of hiring.

Last year, we actually ended the year with 800 more police officers than we had over the previous three years.

So, point is, the size of the department has been growing over the past year and will continue to grow.

To grow this year meaningfully, and that is a very

good thing for all New Yorkers because to answer your specific question, the number of police officers we have is directly related to our progress driving down

shooting incidents and shooting victims in this city.

Shootings are one crime that you can really deploy for.

We know where the vast majority of shootings in New York City occur.

We know what times of day they occur at.

And so our plan, the reason we have been able to drive down shootings so far, is we deploy officers in those neighborhoods, on those streets, at those times.

And that plan has worked to, you know, with tremendous historic success.

So most of the officers who are working on those streets in our zones, we call them, are actually the new officers that we hired last year.

They spend their first 18 months in the department learning those neighborhoods, learning those streets, learning police work, and they have done an extraordinary job driving shootings down.