NYPD exodus? 25 percent of rank and file officers look to leave, John Jay survey finds
Nearly a quarter of NYPD officers who responded to an academic survey said they were actively looking to leave the department — a statistic experts say could further strain an organization whose staffing levels are already at decade lows .
The survey was part of a study published by CUNY's John Jay College of Criminal Justice and asked officers at the rank-and-file level to evaluate their commitment to the department. It included seven statements ranging from "I am actively looking to change careers (leave policing) and I will leave the NYPD as soon as a feasible opportunity arises" to "I am unsure how I feel about the NYPD/neutral."
Participants were then asked to select the top five reasons for how they felt. The possible reasons included compensation, the cleanliness of their work environment and condition of equipment, work-life balance, job fulfillment, treatment from supervisors and the risk of getting in trouble after interactions with the public.
During summer 2023, the researchers sent more than 25,000 emails and received 1,823 complete responses, which were all anonymous. Nearly 23% of the respondents indicated they intended to leave the NYPD or the profession in the near term.
"I think it's pretty stark because the thing is, officers aren't seeing any light at the end of the tunnel," said Kenneth Quick, an assistant professor of criminal justice at DeSales University who conducted the study with John Jay professor Kevin Wolff.
Dissatisfaction with pay, equipment and facilities, poor work-life balance, and a lack of fulfillment were some of the biggest reasons for those feelings, according to the study.
Quick said that work-life balance was the most concerning of all the factors listed, given that officers are increasingly being asked to work overtime .
"I think a lot of officers are at what they perceive to be the whim of management, just being forced to work these long hours to fill basic organizational needs — like crime reduction, like foot posts for crime spikes — and they don't see a light at the end of the tunnel," he said. "They themselves only see it as getting worse from here."
But Quick said officers' disappointment with the condition of their equipment and the cleanliness of their work environment was the strongest reason they gave for wanting to leave the NYPD.
"That was a little surprising. If you go to another law enforcement agency, some of the police stations, the equipment, what they have to work with is just pristine, it's brand new. It's high quality," he said. "Whereas in New York City there's less clean, high-quality resources for your average officer who may be taking our survey."
The results, which were published last month, come as the NYPD faces its lowest staff numbers in more than three decades. As of October, department personnel data showed the headcount was at 33,475 — the lowest since 32,451 in 1990, according to data from the Police Benevolent Association, the union that represents rank-and-file officers.
"This study confirms once again that the NYPD's staffing crisis has become a vicious cycle," PBA President Patrick Hendry said in a statement. "Cops are frustrated, burned out and leaving in droves, which only makes the workload more unsustainable for the cops who remain."
About 200 officers have walked off the job each month this year, either retiring, resigning or taking other local policing jobs, according to PBA spokesperson John Nuthall.
The NYPD said in a statement that it "regularly monitors attrition and plans accordingly to address the loss of officers who retire or leave the department for a variety of reasons."
"While recent events outside of the department continue to present challenges to recruitment efforts we continue to focus on the positive results that happen when someone joins this organization," the statement read. "The NYPD hired over 2,300 recruits in 2023. Year to date in 2024 we have hired an additional 2,634 recruits. Our current uniformed headcount is 34,167."
Quick said police attrition can cause what he called "organizational cannibalism" as more people leave, stretching remaining officers thin. NYPD officers who refuse to work overtime can be suspended or docked pay, he said, meaning they're essentially forced to take the shifts.
If fewer officers are available for deployment, it could result in parades and festivals being reduced or canceled , according to the researchers. The NYPD might also have to be more selective about which calls it responds to — a move the Pittsburgh police department has already made in its own efforts to recruit and retain officers.
"I think [NYPD leadership] have to really commit themselves to maintaining a basic sense of officer quality of life," said Quick. "I think that they have to set a metric as to what they believe, maybe with the unions, is an accessible, acceptable level of 'this is how much you might get forced to work overtime, but we're not going to force you past this point.' And there needs to be safeguards, and then they have to abide by those rules."
Nuthall, the PBA spokesperson, said the union is trying to address work-life balance issues by encouraging NYPD leadership to give officers more time off and more equitably distribute overtime across the department.
