NYPD Overtime to Be Cut to Help Pay for Migrant Crisis — Even as Crime Remains Higher Than Before COVID

Overtime for NYPD cops will be cut to help pay for the city’s migrant crisis — even as police battle to rein in crime that is still higher than before the pandemic.

Mayor Eric Adams’ budget director, Jacques Jiha, has told the city’s four uniformed agencies — police, fire, sanitation and corrections — to come up with plans to slash their OT costs.

“The mayor will … issue a directive to implement an overtime reduction initiative for our city’s four uniformed agencies (NYPD, FDNY, DOC/DSNY),” Jiha said in a memo sent to city agencies Saturday “These agencies must submit a plan to reduce year-to-year OT spending.”

The uniformed agencies must submit issue monthly reports to City Hall “to track overtime spending and their progress in meeting the reduction target,” the memo said.

The order comes as Adams has warned that the recent flood of tens of thousands of asylum seekers into the Big Apple will “destroy” it, including by crippling it financially.

He has said the migrant influx could cost the city $12 billion in the next three years and that Big Apple agencies will have to immediately come up with cuts of 5% — and possibly a total of 15% by spring — although Jia said the more draconian figure would still “only cover two-thirds of our projected asylum costs.”

Patrick Hendry, head of the city’s largest police union, the Police Benevolent Association, on Sunday blasted the notion of cutting even overtime costs for his members.

“It is going to be impossible for the NYPD to significantly reduce overtime unless it fixes its staffing crisis,” Hendry said. “We are still thousands of cops short, and we’re struggling to drive crime back to pre-2020 levels without adequate personnel.

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