New York City Mayor Eric Adams said Monday that it “makes no sense” that the city's uniformed police officers aren’t required to live in the city limits.
“I want you here in this city,” Adams said. “I want you to go to the cleaners. I want you to go to the churches to the supermarket, your children should be in our schools. We shouldn’t have 30 something percent of officers residing [out of New York City].”
“There’s no such thing as being off duty, so technically, if you see a crime and you don’t take action as a police officer, you could be held accountable for that,” Adams added. “So, why are we using our tax dollars to pay for an officer to be here for eight hours and then 16 hours he’s going to one of our five neighboring counties and protecting them?
Currently, uniformed members of the NYPD have to be New York residents but can also live in Nassau, Suffolk, Rockland, Westchester, Putnam or Orange counties, the New York Post reports.
Officer response to the residency plan has not been positive,
"As soon as he pays me enough to rent an apartment in the city, I will move," a Manhattan law enforcement officer told the New York Post.
Another cop added: "Not everyone wants to live in Brownsville — which still costs half a million for a house," the police source said.
"I’d rather put my balls in a Vise-Grip."
Fox News reports that yearly NYPD salaries start at $42,500 for officers before overtime, and pay goes up to $85,292 per year after five and a half years on the force, according to city data.
