Newsday
A bad economy has forced the New York Police Department to slow down plans to assign 800 officers to the area near Ground Zero and Wall Street and cancel a police academy class next year, Police Commissioner Ray Kelly said yesterday during a City Council hearing.
The move is a product of budget restraints and a development slowdown, with construction of the Freedom Tower mired in delays. There are still scores of officers working in the Financial District, which is considered a prime target for terrorists.
The Lower Manhattan Security Initiative, as it is called, is similar to the so-called Ring of Steel in London, where authorities use a network of cameras, security barriers and officers to guard against attacks by terrorists.
Kelly has warned for some time that budget woes would slow the department’s plans to assign 800 cops downtown and to install 3,000 security cameras. About 300 cameras have thus far been installed.
Kelly told the council’s Public Safety Committee that the NYPD’s counterterrorism efforts have not been affected by budget restraints.
City Councilman Peter Vallone, head of the committee, said the department can only be cut so much before it has an effect.
“It’s not something we can let happen,” he said.
Kelly also said the department doesn’t have enough money for a police academy class next year.
The nation’s biggest police department has shrunk by more than 4,000 officers from a peak of 40,800 in 2001 -- and by next year the budget will allow for a maximum of only 34,771 officers.
The loss of the class is not a done deal, however. In November, for instance, the January 2009 class was canceled, only to be restored. The class, though, is small, with 250 recruits. The July 2008 class consisted of more than 1,100 members.
President Barack Obama’s stimulus package could also allow the city to hire up to 400 cops.
Patrick Lynch, head of the Patrolmen’s Benevolent Association, said crime chases away both tourists and businesses.
“Not all city services are of equal importance, and none is more important than keeping our city safe from crime and terrorism,” Lynch said. “It is time to stop cannibalizing the NYPD for the sake of the budget.”
This story was supplemented with Associated Press reports.
Copyright 2009 Newsday