NEW YORK — New York City cops are putting in for retirement faster than the NYPD can handle — while citing a lack of respect and the loss of overtime pay.
A surge of city police filing papers during the past week more than quadrupled last year’s number — as the city grapples with a surge of shootings — and the stampede caused a bottleneck that’s forcing others to delay putting in their papers, officials and sources said, according to the New York Post.
The NYPD said Wednesday that 179 police officers filed for retirement between June 29 and Monday, an astounding 411-percent increase over the 35 who filed during the same time period in 2019.
The astonishing rush for the door came as 503 officers filed for retirement between May 25 — the day George Floyd was killed in Minneapolis, sparking anti-cop protests around the country — and July 3, the NYPD said.
That number represents a 75-percent increase over the 287 who filed for retirement during the same time last year, the NYPD said.
Sources said that the deluge of applications had overwhelmed the department — due to cancellation of overtime for the workers who process them — and that the number of daily applicants was being limited as a result.
On Tuesday, The Post spotted a line of officers waiting outside the office at One Police Plaza where retirement papers get filed.
“Apparently, the pension section is only taking a certain amount of people per day and I think they are backed up till late July, early August,” one officer said.
“That’s why you don’t see like 100 a day, because they are only doing like 35 to 40 a day, by appointment.”
A spokeswoman for the NYPD confirmed the “surge in the number of officers filing for retirement.”
“While the decision to retire is a personal one and can be attributed to a range of factors, it is a troubling trend that we are closely monitoring,” the spokesperson added.
An NYPD spokeswoman noted that the department is not turning down any applications for officers retiring in the next 30 days — but has told police personnel putting in to retire after that to come back when a month out due to the increased activity.
The growing hate and animosity nationwide for the police profession has been demoralizing.
“There’s just droves and droves of people retiring. But there’s no surprise here, who the hell wants to stay on this job?” one cop said.
“Why would you want to stay on this job when people don’t appreciate what you do?”
“You have to be crazy to stay on a job where you are losing money, abused by the people you are trying to protect and not appreciated by the politicians,” one source told the Post.
A Manhattan detective also noted the impact of controversial criminal justice and bail-reform laws.
“It is frustrating — you work on a case and then the suspect is let go,” the 25-year veteran said.
“Why put your job on the line, when no one appreciates you or has your back?”
In a prepared statement, the head of the Police Benevolent Association blamed lawmakers for having “completely dismantled our justice system” and called the rash of retirement applications “one answer to the question on every police officer’s mind: how are we supposed to do our job in this environment?”
“And now that crime is out of control, they want to blame us for that, too,” PBA President Pat Lynch said.
“Whether we have twenty years on the job or only two, police officers are tired of trying to sort out these mixed messages. Many of us are looking elsewhere.”
Lieutenants Benevolent Association president Lou Turco said cops feel “demoralized and abandoned” by politicians.
“Overtime plays a part, it happened in 2008 and 2009 and after 9/11 but this is not about overtime now,” he claimed. “They feel abandoned by the silent majority and they are leaving. They don’t feel appreciated.”
