NYPD finds some 4,500 potential recruits after it lowers college credit requirement, sources say

About 4,500 potential recruits who failed to meet minimum college requirements to join the New York City Police Department are now eligible to be hired by the force after NYPD Commissioner Jessica Tisch lowered the standard, law enforcement sources told Newsday. 

The commissioner reduced the basic requirement to 24 college credits, down from 60 credits, as part of a recruiting campaign to replenish the ranks after a wave of retirements and resignations that have hollowed out metropolitan police departments in New York and across the country. 

The sources, who spoke on the condition of anonymity because they weren’t authorized to speak publicly on the subject, said the pool of potential recruits includes candidates who had passed the police test but failed to satisfy the 60-credit threshold.

Tisch announced last month that she was lowering the requirement to 24 credits to boost the applicant pool, and then officials quickly began contacting a large group of previously unqualified applicants who appear to meet the new threshold to see if they are still interested in joining the force, the sources said. In some cases, the applicants asked to revive their applications, one of the police sources said.

Police officers join the academy earning $52,804, with 13 vacation days and 12 paid holidays, according to the city. The same officer makes $101,590 and gets 27 vacation days after 5 1/2 years on the force. 

The Police Benevolent Association of the City of New York, the largest police union representing thousands of officers, declined to comment on the potential flood of new applicants.

An NYPD spokesman didn’t immediately return a request for comment on the new pool of applicants.

Last week, Tisch told the New York City Council that the NYPD was in a staffing crisis. Attrition and smaller pools of recruits was pushing down police ranks to levels not seen in years, she said.

Tisch said the 60-credit requirement forced the NYPD to turn away 2,275 potential recruits in 2023, about 29% of applicants.

Including the latest police academy class that has yet to graduate, the NYPD employs just under 34,000 officers, Tisch said. That's a sharp drop from the 37,000 employed in 2018, and down from 40,000 officers before the Sept. 11, 2001, terrorist attacks, city records show.

"I will not sugarcoat it — the NYPD is in a hiring crisis," Tisch acknowledged to the council. "It is not a budget problem, Mayor [Eric] Adams has given us all the resource that we need and has greenlit every [academy] class we wanted to bring in, but the applicants are just not there."

Tisch has been shifting desk officers and other specialized personnel back to precincts and into the subways as a form of triage to get back to the basics of policing while struggling with a lack of personnel.

"We can’t change it in the short term, but we hope to change it in the long term: We have to hire, hire, hire," Tisch told council members.

The law enforcement sources said they are reaching out to past applicants to stop what Tisch described as a mad scramble for candidates. About 1,000 recruits began academy training earlier this year, but it was unclear just how many would enter the next class, which has yet to be announced. Tisch described the recent academy class sizes as being "lumpy," with highs and lows. 

"It is obvious they are hurting for candidates in New York," said Christopher Herrmann, associate professor at John Jay College of Criminal Justice, who added that lowering college requirements may be helpful in getting more potential recruits to the academy now.

But Herrmann said college-educated recruits make better officers. 

The lack of significant college preparation slows down the career progression of officers when they seek promotion, Herrmann said, adding that at his institution, a number of officers enroll to get degrees to help in career advancement.

By Anthony M. DeStefano

tony.destefano@newsday.comtonynewsday

Anthony M. DeStefano has been a reporter for Newsday since 1986 and covers law enforcement, criminal justice and legal affairs from its New York City offices.