Adams’ fair contract deal for cops is a good step toward curbing crime
Mayor Eric Adams took another step toward reining in crime Wednesday by sewing up an eminently reasonable contract with the city’s police union for pay and work conditions.
Yet the deal’s steep price tag, $5.5 billion, is all the more reason he’ll need to resist the City Council’s irresponsible push for more spending elsewhere.
The agreement provides fair raises for cops — including retroactive payments back to 2017, when the last contract expired — as well as hikes in starting salaries and a pilot program creating 10- and 12-hour tours that might help control overtime and boost morale.
It also ensures no labor unrest over the lack of a contract, which cops have endured since the middle of Mayor Bill de Blasio’s tenure.
“This agreement is not only a major step toward closing our pay gap relative to other police departments,” cheered Police Benevolent Association boss Pat Lynch; “it also significantly improves our members’ quality of life.”
Happier cops, and fewer quitting, mean better policing — and less crime.
The deal provides raises of 2.25% for the year starting Aug. 1, 2017, rising to 4% next year — or about 29% over its eight-year life.
Still, the back raises represent a hefty hit (thank Blas for pushing off much of the cost to his successor). They come as Adams has lowered the municipal headcount and just ordered trims of 4% a year at city agencies to help cover billions in new costs for migrants, the MTA and other needs, all amid a rocky economy.
Of course, the council’s drunken sailors just demanded Adams jack up his 2024 budget by $1.3 billion — never mind the PBA contract, other union contracts, pricey new state mandates, the economy or even the $13.9 billion hole state Comptroller Tom DiNapoli has warned the city could already face by 2027.
It’s essential to pay cops fairly, especially when crime is still above pre-pandemic levels and anti-police hostility has eroded morale and brought record numbers of officers quitting.
By itself, a fair police contract isn’t nearly enough to get crime moving reliably down.
New Yorkers also need fixes to the state’s criminal-justice laws (cashless bail, Raise the Age, etc.) and prosecutors and judges willing to lock up villains.
But this deal will certainly help — assuming, that is, Adams can keep councilmen from bankrupting the city with other outlays.
