Day: August 20, 2025
Leading New York City mayoral candidates on Wednesday cited amNewYork’s report on the NYPD’s worsening struggle with retaining officers as they hit the campaign trail.
Both Assembly Member Zohran Mamdani, the Democratic nominee and frontrunner, and former Gov. Andrew Cuomo, his chief rival, touted the report to pitch their own plans to keep more officers on the force and boost headcount on Aug. 20.
Data obtained by amNewYork revealed that the attrition rate of officers, either retiring or leaving the department before reaching their 20-year mark, has skyrocketed. It showed that an average of 316 rank-and-file officers left the NYPD every month of this year and that the department has lost 5,248 individuals since January 2024, while only adding 4,244 new recruits over that same period.
On Wednesday, the NYPD added another 1,093 new recruits to the Academy ranks.
According to the Police Benevolent Association, officers are leaving in droves for other departments due to the workload and its toll on their personal lives.
Mamdani, following an unrelated Wednesday news conference, cited the newly revealed severity of the retention issue as a reason to implement his plan to establish a separate agency outside the NYPD to take on certain responsibilities currently left to cops. His plan for a “Department of Community Safety” would assume duties such as responding to mental health crises either on the streets or in the subways, stemming gun violence, and providing services to victims.
The lawmaker contends the new department would free NYPD officers from being stretched too thin and allow officers to focus on their core job of tackling crime.
“When you ask those officers, what they will tell you is, it’s the lack of quality of life, it is the forced overtime, it is the ways in which this job is asking them to respond to nearly every failure of the social safety net, and it’s pushing them out of the department,” Mamdani said of why officers are leaving the NYPD.
“My vision is one where police officers are not only enabled, but empowered, to focus on the major categories of crime, the ones that they signed up to address,” he added.
However, Mamdani’s plan does not call for increasing the NYPD’s headcount beyond its budgeted amount of 35,000. Currently, the force is below that level by 1,261.
Mamdani has faced criticism for that aspect of his plan and for his past calls to “defund the police,” which he now says are “out of step” with his mayoral campaign.
Meanwhile, Cuomo’s campaign X account reposted the amNY story to boost his own plan to increase the NYPD’s ranks by 5,000 officers.
“Public safety is job 1,” Cuomo said in the post. “The NYPD is losing officers at a record level. Rebuilding it must be a top priority. The NYPD are NY’s finest. It’s past time to reverse this dangerous trend to protect our city My plan will add 5,000 officers, 1,500 in the subways, with incentive bonuses to attract the best.”
The former governor is running as an independent after handily losing the Democratic primary to Mamdani.
Cuomo’s post drew a swift rebuke from Adams’ Deputy Mayor for Communications Fabien Levy. He pointed out that it came right after Adams announced his administration had hired its largest class of NYPD recruits since 2016.
“The fact that he posted this AFTER @NYCMayor announced one of the largest police classes in the last decade & nearly 10,000 officers hired under his administration is hysterical,” Levy said.
Adams has been defending his handling of the NYPD and the rest of his record as he runs for reelection — also as an independent.
Barry Winiker, longtime Brooklyn court clerk, celebrates decades of service, passion for the job and dedication to mentoring new clerks.
The post Associate court clerk Barry Winiker reflects on his 50 plus years of service — and shows no signs of slowing down appeared first on Brooklyn Eagle.
A Long Island man was sentenced to nine years for attempting to murder a woman with his car and crashing into an MTA bus in Brooklyn.
The post Long Island man sentenced for deliberately hitting woman with his car, attempting to flip MTA bus appeared first on Brooklyn Eagle.
Citing treacherous waters, officials prohibited swimming at all beaches in New York City as well as some in Long Island through Thursday.
The post What to know about powerful Hurricane Erin as it heads past the US East Coast appeared first on Brooklyn Eagle.
Cartel boss Ismael ‘El Mayo’ Zambada will plead guilty in Brooklyn, accused of murders, torture and flooding the U.S. with drugs
The post Former Sinaloa Cartel Kingpin Ismael ‘El Mayo’ Zambada Set to Plead Guilty appeared first on Brooklyn Eagle.
An affordable housing lottery has opened for first-time homeowners looking to buy an affordable apartment in the longstanding Brooklyn Heights middle-income housing complex Cadman Towers. The lottery will give people a spot on the waitlist for one of 19 units.
The well-known development, which debuted in 1971 and comprises high-rises at 10 Clinton St. and 101 Clark St., was recently converted from a Mitchell-Lama cooperative into a city-sponsored HDFC, freeing residents to sell their houses for a higher profit and generating more income for the buildings, which are in need of costly repairs.
Apartments used to sell for five figures, and now all of the units in the lottery are more than $100,000. At the same time, the conversion wiped a years-long waiting list for the affordable units (to the dismay of those on it), creating a new one through NYC Housing Connect.
Included in the lottery for 10 Clinton St. and 101 Clark St. are 19 one- to three-bedroom apartments for households of one to seven people earning between $78,137 and $251,125 a year. That works out to 125% of Area Median Income. Applicants also cannot have assets worth more than $271,775, according to the listing.
In the lottery are nine one-bedrooms priced between $168,928 and $186,760, with monthly maintenance between $986.22 and $956.76, six two-bedrooms ranging from $240,019 to $248,500 with maintenance between $1,429.16 and $1,523.69, and four three-bedrooms between $269,644 and $275,381, with monthly maintenance from $1,807.12 to $1,830.68.
The listings states buyers must make a 10 percent down payment, and people with lower incomes than required could qualify if they make larger down payments. The listing also notes asset limits and sales prices could change. Those applying must be first-time buyers and have to live in the apartment as their primary residence, the listing lays out.
The building, which has a total of 421 apartments and includes a shared laundry room, bike storage lockers, and garages, joined the Mitchell-Lama program in 1973. According to The City, in April last year the complex had $62 million in debt due and needed tens of millions for repairs, but couldn’t take on any more loans. It had been raising maintenance fees for residents to keep up with repairs, but that was proving unsustainable for them or the building.
The board voted to convert the complex to HDFC status, allowing residents to sell their apartments at more of a profit than allowed under Mitchell-Lama, and requiring them to pay 50% of that profit to the board to fund repairs and maintenance.
Cadman Towers board president Toba Potosky told The City at the time: “It’s to make sure we’re affordable for the next 50 years and beyond.” Local Council Member Lincoln Restler added the conversion is “a choice to make between hurting the existing low-income residents at Cadman or hurting future low-income residents who want to live at Cadman.”
There will be an informational session on the housing lottery in the community room of Cadman Towers at 101 Clark Street on September 9 at 6 p.m. Instructions for joining the meeting remotely are available in the listing.
The Cadman Towers HDFC lottery closes on September 22. To apply, visit the listing on New York City’s Housing Connect website.
This story first appeared on Brooklyn Paper’s sister site Brownstoner.