New York City Public Advocate Jumaane D. Williams today called for smarter, more targeted investment in public health and safety in the city budget. At a hearing of the City Council Committees on Public Safety and Finance, he pushed for strategies and spending that do not rely entirely on law enforcement.
“...This is a cycle that happens, and I’m hoping at some point, we can stop the cycle by agreeing where we agree, but backing that up with funding to other agencies and other organizations that can do the jobs that we’re asking our NYPD to do,” argued the Public Advocate. “It causes unnecessary tension, unnecessary conversations, unnecessary pressures that the public sees. So I’m pleading with the Commissioner to rethink some of the strategies they’re trying to do, and make the law, the NYPD the last resort, not the first resort.” On police overtime, which increased to over $1.1 billion during the last fiscal year, he said that “Excessive overtime does not only drain resources that could be used to invest in what we know makes us safer: housing support, mental health services, employment opportunities, crisis intervention, credible messengers, and education – It also harms officer retention…For an agency that struggles with recruitment and retention, it is in the NYPD’s best interest to ensure that officers are not putting in excessive overtime.” He also addressed the expenses associated with police misconduct settlements, saying that “In 2024, the city paid over $205 million in police misconduct lawsuit settlements, the most since 2018… In September of last year, the NYPD shot a person accused of holding a knife pursued for fare evasion, as well as bystanders and one of their own officers—leaving one bystander in critical condition with a gunshot to the head. Two of the victims announced their intentions to sue the city for $80 million and $70 million, respectively. It bears repeating that the fare for the subway is $2.90.” The Public Advocate pushed for sufficient funding for public defender services as essential to the city’s safety as well. Read the Public Advocate’s full comments as delivered below.
STATEMENT OF PUBLIC ADVOCATE JUMAANE D. WILLIAMS
TO THE NEW YORK CITY COUNCIL COMMITTEES ON PUBLIC SAFETY AND FINANCE
MARCH 11, 2025
Thank you Mr. Chair, Commissioner, First Deputy and Deputy Commissioners .
As mentioned, my name is Jumaane D. Williams, and I am the Public Advocate for the City of New York. I want to thank Chairs Salaam and the members of the Committees on Public Safety and Finance for holding this important hearing.
I do want to mention that wherever I go, I ask three questions that are answered the same, whether it’s the most Republican district or the most Democratic district.
1. How many people think that crime is an issue? Raise your hand – they normally do.
2. How many people think that police are part of trying to address that crime? Most folks usually raise their hand.
3. How many people think they can do it alone? Most people don’t raise their hand.
Those questions are answered, all over, the same, and I feel like that third question is where we have a lot of difficulty, as no matter where we agree, most of the weight of public safety is always falling on our law enforcement.
And so I’m hoping to have a public safety discussion that goes outside of law enforcement so we have a better understanding of what public safety is. With that, I do also want to mention, even throughout the defund movement, ‘Defund the Police,’ which I said then and now was not the best phrasing of what I think they were trying to do – the NYPD was never defunded. Many other agencies were, and I don’t know if we’ll be able to discuss the impact of those agencies being defunded.
I do think the NYPD should not be leading in providing assistance and services to people experiencing homelessness or mental health crises. Having NYPD lead to remove public perceived as being homeless or experiencing symptoms of mental illness into the hospital is not the best use of city resources. The city instead must invest in non-police responses to help in mental health crisis and affordable community based mental health services, subsidized housing, respite and drop-in centers, things that dramatically decrease the likelihood of need for intervention in the subway in the first place. The PD can be available if necessary.
The NYPD spent nearly $1.1 billion on overtime during the 2024 fiscal year—$141 million more than the previous year. I was just with the Comptroller who presented a report about the community-based violence interruption programs, and while the Department has $1.1 billion just in overtime, they can’t even get paid on time. And I can’t imagine what kind of services we’d be able to provide from the police department if they had to wait three, four, five, almost a year to get paid. Police overtime has always been the subject of debate, but recent events—including allegations that the former Chief of Department traded overtime pay for sexual acts —have emphasized the need for reform. I want to say I am heartened to see NYPD Commissioner Tisch taking steps to address excessive overtime and overtime abuse.
Excessive overtime does not only drain resources that could be used to invest in what we know makes us safer: housing support, mental health services, employment opportunities, crisis intervention, credible messengers, and education – It also harms officer retention. Officers have cited mandatory long hours as reasons they left their jobs, reporting that it left little time to see their spouses and start families. Making tens or even hundreds of thousands of dollars in overtime in a year also incentivizes retirement: for officers who have reached their 20th year of service, their pensions will be based on their 2024 salaries, inclusive of overtime. Many officers will, and have, chosen to retire rather than risk retiring with a smaller pension in a few years. For an agency that struggles with recruitment and retention, it is in the NYPD’s best interest to ensure that officers are not putting in excessive overtime.
In 2024, the city paid over $205 million in police misconduct lawsuit settlements, the most since 2018. This number is not inclusive of matters that were settled with the Comptroller’s Office prior to formal litigation. Though more than half of the cases settled were around 20 years old, predating this administration, we continue to see cases seeking millions of dollars in damages as a result of police misconduct. In September of last year, the NYPD shot a person accused of holding a knife pursued for fare evasion, as well as bystanders and one of their own officers—leaving one bystander in critical condition with a gunshot to the head. Two of the victims announced their intentions to sue the city for $80 million and $70 million, respectively. It bears repeating that the fare for the subway is $2.90. The NYPD also injured numerous people last year in crackdowns on protests, including the occupation of a building on Columbia University’s campus.
It is also vital to adequately and robustly fund our public defender services. While free legal defense services for anyone who needs them are mandated by federal law and local law, these organizations are consistently underfunded. It is low-income New Yorkers who ultimately face the consequences of a budget that favors district attorneys’ offices, deprived of the robust legal representation that they need and deserve. A broad range of non-profits that have city contracts to provide services to New Yorkers, including those that provide legal services, have repeatedly reported that the city makes payments far too late, or sometimes not at all. The city budget must ensure a high standard of quality legal representation for low-income New Yorkers.
I just wanted to add, based on some of the things that I’ve heard, that sound a lot like returning to some broken windows-type policing. I sat and met with George Kelling during the height of the abuses of stop, question, and frisk, to get an understanding of what he was thinking, and he agreed with me that broken windows do not have to be fixed by police, meaning that police do not have to be the ones sent there all the time, and he was concerned about the reputation it was getting.
Recidivism has always been an issue. I’d be interested to see where it was before 2018, most interested to see what recidivism is doing across the nation, just like violence and crime across the nation that occurred after the pandemic rise. Our laws had nothing to do with rising crimes or recidivism across the nation, and there are places in the state, like Buffalo, that have seen historic drops in shootings and murders as well.
We also know that many times, judges who are not setting some of the bail they had available to them, it had nothing to do with the law. We should be pushing to invest in other things, because inevitably, it happens every single time and it will happen now – the more we put this weight on our police, there will be interactions that will be damaging and often feel like we’re setting our officers up for failure by asking them to do things that other people should be doing. That is not good for them and it’s not good for community.
But this is a cycle that happens, and I’m hoping at some point, we can stop the cycle by agreeing where we agree, but backing that up with funding to other agencies and other organizations that can do the jobs that we’re asking our NYPD to do. It causes unnecessary tension, unnecessary conversations, unnecessary pressures that the public sees. So I’m pleading with the Commissioner to rethink some of the strategies they’re trying to do, and make the law, the NYPD the last resort, not the first resort. And let’s figure out some other agencies and other organizations that can be the first resort to try to address a lot of these issues, because I don’t want them ignored.
But this playbook has been seen over and over, city after city, and I know what the result is going to be and I’m concerned for all of us if that is that path we take.
Thank you so much, and I appreciate it.
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