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Curious to how New Yorkers would answer this question. Had this debate a few years ago in Boston and it got pretty heated. What do you guys think? Should NYPD officers have to live in the city in order to keep their jobs? How would this affect neighborhoods and/or the city overall?
Most of them already do. Look at Staten island and the rock aways which are full of city workers. They are required to live in NY state. There may be some who live upstate or on Long Island, but the majority live in NYC already.
Not only live in the city but should be assigned to work in the same general neighborhood/community/zip code they live in. Communities should be policed by its own
Not only live in the city but should be assigned to work in the same general neighborhood/community/zip code they live in. Communities should be policed by its own
This I don't really agree with. It could definitely cause a discrepency in the availability of police in certain neighborhoods.
Curious to how New Yorkers would answer this question. Had this debate a few years ago in Boston and it got pretty heated. What do you guys think? Should NYPD officers have to live in the city in order to keep their jobs? How would this affect neighborhoods and/or the city overall?
Quote:
Originally Posted by Dennis Brown
Not only live in the city but should be assigned to work in the same general neighborhood/community/zip code they live in. Communities should be policed by its own
Dennis, to an extent I agree with you. But let's consider some realities here.
I read not long ago that an NYPD officer's starting salary is around $32,000 per year. I also know, from having talked with a friend about living in NYC, that a studio apartment in a not-so-great area of Brooklyn ran her family $600 per month. Given that that was eight years ago, it could very easily be $700 per month now for that same place.
That's feasible, but not exactly comfortable. When you're bringing in maybe $2200 per month after taxes, you're looking at spending at least 1/3 of your income on rent... if you'll even find an apartment complex that will rent to you under those conditions.
If you're policing more expensive communities, it becomes infeasible to live in that area on a $32,000/year salary. I grew up in central New Jersey where it's always been really expensive to live. Several years ago, I read an article which said that a police officer in the town where my parents have lived for 24 years started out at $29,000 per year. There was no way in you-know-where that that guy could have afforded a place in the town where he worked. In order to get a place in an area that wasn't a complete scumhole, he would have had to spend almost half of his income on rent AND be willing to commute at least 5-10 miles one way. Not going to happen.
I do agree that people who police an area should live in that area. However, in many cases, for that to happen they would need to be given a place that was either free or very heavily subsidized. I'm not opposed to that. It should be a perk of the job that you get an affordable place to live in the area you are policing. But I know of no areas that do such things. The closest thing I've ever heard of is "officer next door" programs which provide down payment assistance to police officers who want to buy houses in low-income or moderate-income areas. That does nothing about the monthly payments, and it doesn't affect higher-income areas.
yes, but not in the same area per say. People don't like being locked up generally and an officer + his/her family would be a target for some thugs cousins/homiez/"people" who didn't like their compadre getting the squeeze.
I believe Police Officers AND Fire fighters should be NYC residents, regardless of location. I don't believe a neighborhood should be policed only by neighborhood residents because there are too many conflicts of interest and relationships which corrupts easily. However all Police and Firefighters should be required to live in NYC.
As it stands now, too many of them live outside the city, and simply view us as cattle and could care less about NYC, so long as the checks keep coming that is. Require residency in NYC and you will find that police and firemen care alot more and treat people alot better because they live here too. When you are simply an outside occupying force, which is what they are, is where you have alot of the problems you see.
PD is one thing, but if you're arguing that FD does not care about the people they serve, regardless of location, then you clearly have zero idea about what you vomit out. Try to keep your mouth breathing in check once in a while.
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