City's Newest Cops Ready for the Beat

New York, NY —

For 1,129 of the NYPD's newest members, this holiday week will be their first on the job. WNYC's Bob Hennelly spoke with some of them and has this report.

This police class is the first to graduate since the landmark contract between the City and the PBA that raised the annual starting pay to 42,000. It's a diverse class with more than half of them Black, Hispanic or Asian. A quarter are foreign-born hailing from 56 countries. Hundreds of them speak two languages, some three. But each one has a unique path that lead them to the NYPD. Jake Richardson grew up in Miami Florida. At age 35, this new dad is nine years older than the average age of this year's rookie.

RICHARDSON: I had been in the Marine Corps and than I worked after I came back from the Middle East. I worked for the Department of Homeland Security and they sent me here. I worked with a great bunch of great detectives and NYPD bosses and they said you should take the test. I took the test and one thing lead to another.

REPORTER: Wait, you went from the federal government to the NYPD? You went over to the dark side as far as the Feds are concerned?"

RICHARDSON: And I have been made fun of endlessly but I was so impressed with who i worked with that here I am.

REPORTER: In the current budget crisis, no City agency has been immune to cuts. For the NYPD, it's meant a smaller cadet class going forward, civilian layoffs and talk of ending the "20-year and out" retirement option for new hires. Richardson says the pay and benefit package isn't what drove him to the NYPD.

RICHARDSON: I did not take the job for the money for the money sir. I took it because I wanted to be a police officer and I wanted to contribute to a community. But it happens to be very nice that the benefits are good and you can retire at 20 years.

SULLY: I love the community I grew up in. I just wanted to give back to my community. I wanted to make my daughter proud. I wanted to make a difference.

REPORTER: Twenty-eight-year-old Bronx native Caroline Sully is one of just 170 women to go on patrol for the NYPD this week. Women make up 15 percent of the new class. Like her fellow rookies, Sully went to college before going into the police academy. She says the "20 year and out retirement option" was attractive but not the motivator to take a job that her father was worried about her taking.

SULLY: I had a pretty good career. I was a business major. I used to work for the city before I started this so I did have a good career before I started this but this is something I really wanted to do. But of course the 20 years. The retirement package is excellent, it helps. But I did this because this is something I wanted to do.

REPORTER: This year, almost 82 percent of the cadets that entered the Academy graduated. That's an 8 percent improvement over the last class. For WNYC I'm Bob Hennelly.