OPINION: Force New York City cops to live in New York City

AP Photo/Bebeto Matthews

By Nick Roloson

Like many New Yorkers, I’ve spent the last few days looking for answers. Why did that cop put his knee on George Floyd’s neck? How is it that a black man can be President of the United States but can’t go for a run without getting shot? When will anything change? 

Here in New York, the last question can easily be answered by our upcoming elections. Unfortunately, however, even if we defund NYPD programs, we’ll have only scratched the surface. Most importantly, we need to make sure New York’s Finest are actually New Yorkers.

Right now a state law, sorely in need of reform, lets cops live in the six “surrounding” counties outside New York City. They lack the same stake many of us in public service feel, as we understand the needs of New Yorkers because we are them. Even the most tactful politicians have tried to fix this problem over the last 40 years, but none have been successful. 

As a result, a quarter of the NYPD’s 35,000 uniformed personnel drive to work from Nassau or Suffolk county. Another sixth of the force comes from north of the Bronx, be it Westchester, Rockland, Orange or Putnam counties. 

We’ve anecdotally known this for years, but we didn’t feel the statistical gravity until four years ago. That’s when blogger Alex Bell sued the department for residency data after they resisted several requests under the Freedom of Information Law. It’s not surprising a notoriously tight-lipped police force that’s long wrestled with diversity issues — especially at the top — didn’t want to fork over the data. Bell’s analysis found Staten Islanders typically patrolled their own borough. Historically black upper Manhattan, meanwhile, is policed by cops who work north of the City. The racial divide is even more telling. More than five years ago Five Thirty-Eight found a vast majority of black and Latino cops live somewhere in New York City, but a paltry 45% of white cops do. 

Cops understandably aren’t allowed to patrol the precinct where they live. But we lose so much without a requirement to have cops actually live in the city. First, it’s hard to build trust in a community you have no stake in. You can boast all you want that the pizza place by your precinct is “the best.” It hardly compares to what it’s like to have a kid in the public school system, deal with alternate-side parking, or have a friendly neighbor who struggles to make rent. Second, we’re not hiring from within the diverse communities long marginalized by over-policing, while employing suburban natives whose notions of the city consist solely of the “bad old days". Last, we lose millions of tax dollars when an annual $85,292 salary (before overtime) drives beyond the city limits. That money should be spent at Astoria bodegas instead of Patchogue delis. 

Instead, we have thousands of officers who come here for a shift — maybe with extra overtime — then go home to put New York City out of sight, out of mind. The next Mayor can fix that by guaranteeing all new contracts have residency commitments. For argument’s sake, let’s say we make sure cops hired after 2022 commit to living in New York City for a set number of years, which is what Syracuse negotiated last December and Buffalo did in 2015. This ensures our officers have a stake in the game as much as any other public servant. 

But our partners in Albany must remove the exemption that allows police to live in the six counties around the City — or many of those officers will simply head east or north after five years. This exemption dates back decades, when leaders were worried their best people would leave the City. Times have changed, and we must escape this 1970s mentality that people will flee New York City.  

Now the argument is it’s too expensive to live here.

That’s insulting to someone who makes barely $20,000 a year to work 20 hours a week for other city agencies, who — by law — must live in New York City. Making such an argument says you have no plans to fix our schools, our housing crisis, or our property tax system. Think of what a $42,500 starting salary in community policing could do for a recent college grad in NYCHA, where the average household income is $25,000. Imagine the perspective they would bring to a force that’s, at times, had an icy relationship with public housing residents. 

Reform advocates have pushed for this change for decades. We’ve gotten to the point, however, where something has to change. Having a scaled-down New York Police Department that actually looks like New York is a moral imperative. 

Nick Roloson is a candidate for New York City Council in District 22.