Former Gov. Andrew Cuomo, the apparent frontrunner in the 2025 NYC mayor’s race, said Sunday he would hire 5,000 new NYPD officers as the centerpiece of a public safety plan he rolled out while visiting a Harlem church.
Cuomo told congregants at Mount Neboh Baptist Church on March 9 that the NYPD’s rank-and-file today, about 34,000, is smaller than it was during the Dinkins administration more than 30 years ago. The department has seen a recent exodus of officers retiring early and has leaned upon costly overtime expenses to keep pace with crime-fighting programs such as several police surges into the subway system.
