1. About $11 billion from the City’s budget are allocated to the NYPD.

In fiscal year 2020 New York City’s expenses for the New York City Police Department (NYPD) will total $10.9 billion, comprised of the $5.6 billion NYPD operating budget and $5.3 billion of costs “centrally allocated,” including $2.3 billion for fringe benefits, $2.8 billion for pensions, and $215 million for debt service. (See Figure 1.) Centrally allocated costs for the NYPD are particularly high since uniformed health insurance and pension benefits are more generous than for other City employees.

2. The NYPD has the third largest agency operating budget.

The NYPD’s operating budget is 5.7 percent of the City’s $97.8 billion budget, with only the Departments of Education (DOE) and Social Services (DSS) commanding a larger share of resources.¹ (See Figure 2.) Excluding the City’s $5.9 billion in required Medicaid payments, the DSS budget would be $4.4 billion, moving the NYPD up to second place.² Including centrally allocated expenses, the $10.9 billion spent on the NYPD equals 11.1 percent of the total City budget.

3. Most of the NYPD budget is for salaries and wages, and the largest share funds street patrol.

Spending on personal service (salaries and wages, including overtime) is 88 percent of the NYPD’s budget, with other than personal service spending (including items such as contract costs, operating expenses for equipment, and vehicle maintenance costs) consuming the remaining 12 percent.³ These figures exclude capital spending, which includes vehicle purchases among other items.

The NYPD’s budget is allocated to functions roughly corresponding to the agency’s bureaus and offices. The largest share of the operating budget, 27 percent, is for patrol and general emergency response. Administration and communications is the second largest function representing 17 percent of the budget, and includes administrative employees and 9-1-1 operators. Thirteen percent of the budget supports the Chief of Department to direct daily operations and coordinate between the NYPD’s bureaus. The Chief of Department budget also contains most of the NYPD’s overtime and additional gross pay (such as differentials and holiday pay). In fiscal year 2020 overtime spending at the NYPD totaled $635 million, or 44 percent of all overtime spending Citywide.⁴  (See Figure 3.)

4. About one-third of NYPD employees are civilians.

The NYPD fiscal year 2020 headcount is 54,003 employees. Of those, 36,178 are uniformed employees and 17,825 are civilian employees. In addition to administrative positions, civilian employees include 9-1-1 call responders, school safety agents, and transportation enforcement agents. (See Figure 4.)

5. Average pay for police officers was more than $90,000 and as high as $190,000 for captains, including overtime.

In fiscal year 2019, the most recent year of available data, the average full-time NYPD employee earned $96,072 in total pay, which is the sum of base pay plus overtime and supplemental pay (such as holiday pay or shift differentials). Among top 10 titles, average total pay for a civilian employee was $55,236 a year, whereas the average total pay for a uniformed employee was $113,240. (See Table 1.)

6. The NYPD budget has grown by one-third since fiscal year 2010.

From fiscal year 2010 to 2020 the NYPD’s operating budget grew $1.2 billion, an increase of 27 percent, or 2.7 percent annually. This is slower than the 5.1 percent total City budget annual growth rate.⁵ Centrally allocated expenses for the NYPD grew $1.6 billion, bringing the total increase in City spending on the NYPD to $2.8 billion, or 34 percent, between fiscal years 2010 and 2020.

Most of the NYPD’s operating budget growth was due to increased spending on administration and communications, patrol, and intelligence and counterterrorism. Together, these account for 61 percent of the operating budget increase from fiscal year 2010 to 2020. (See Figure 5.) Overall, higher personal service spending accounted for 71 percent of the NYPD’s operating budget growth, with the remaining 29 percent due to higher other than personal service spending.^[ii]

7. NYPD headcount grew by more than 3,000 employees since fiscal year 2010.

Between fiscal years 2010 and 2020 NYPD headcount grew by 3,288 employees, from 50,715 to 54,003, a 6.5 percent increase. Of these, 1,749 were civilian and 1,542 were uniformed. The agency’s prior peak in headcount, before reductions began as a response to the Great Recession, was 52,304 in fiscal year 2009.⁷ Most of the growth in NYPD headcount began after fiscal year 2014, with 1,300 police officers being hired in 2015 as part of the City’s community policing initiative and to expand counterterrorism response capacity. (See Figure 6.)