No More Operation Impact????!!!!

Due to a spike in Crime in Brooklyn North, The 77 precinct is presently seeking to be designated an Operation Impact precint. If the precinct meets the criteria, literally 50-100 Police Officers will be sent to patrol Crown/Prospect Heights. Unfortunately with the NYPD once again facing a staffing crisis, Operation Impact might be scrapped!
December 07, 2007

As a new class of police recruits prepares to graduate, Police Commissioner Ray Kelly says there may not be enough of them to save one of the department's key programs. NY1's Criminal Justice Reporter Solana Pyne filed the following report.

Operation Impact is a seemingly straightforward tool to cut crime on the streets -- flood them with police officers. Police Commissioner Ray Kelly started operation impact to do just that, putting new recruits on patrol in high crime neighborhoods.

The commissioner, and some criminologists, say it's been a major factor in the continuing drop in crime, but the department may be forced to trim the program at the end of the month, when the latest class graduates.

"We may not be able to have an impact," said Kelly. "We may have to take officers as they graduate, which will be about 940 police officers coming soon, and we're going to have to make a decision as to whether or not they go to local commands or some of them can be assigned to Operation Impact."

It all depends, says Kelly, on just how many officers quit or retire before that class hits the streets.

"Literally people leave the organization every day," said the commissioner. "We had 55,000 employees. We have now 35,500 uniformed officers, so they're [dropping] out every day. So it is a decision that will be made on a day-to-day basis."

The department is more than 2,000 officers below its authorized head count. The 2005 contract cut officers' starting salaries to $25,100 a year for the six months they're at the academy. Since then, Kelly says, the hiring shortage is becoming acute.

"It is just shameful, in my opinion, to pay police officers $25,100 a year in this, the most expensive city in North America," said Kelly. "We need the very best people that we can hire."

The police union blames the problem on salaries that, even at the top, are far below what nearby departments pay. The police commissioner agrees top salary needs to rise, even though the city is predicting tighter budgets ahead.

"You can't get into the restaurants around the city. The sidewalks are just clogged in Midtown, Manhattan with tourists, a lot of tourists from overseas," said Kelly. "People want to come here. A lot of that is a result of work that police officers have done."

The officers' contract is in binding arbitration. Hearings are expected to continue into January. If the last contract is any guide, a new one may not be hammered out until next summer.

- Solana Pyne