The New York Police Department is experiencing a significant loss of sergeants because the city’s policies have reduced the appeal of the rank while allocating limited resources for illegal aliens.
The crisis in large part, is due to a salary structure where veteran officers can earn more than newly promoted sergeants, Fox News reported.
“We’re going to have guys potentially in the next year, year and a half that will be making upwards of anywhere between 9 to $15,000 less than a police officer,” Vincent Vallelong, President of NYPD’s Sergeants Benevolent Association (SBA) said. “So you’re going to take a rank with more responsibility, you took a test, three tests, and at the end of the day, you’re losing money.”
The upside-down policy structure has sergeants starting pay at $98,000, capping at $118,000 after five years, the SBA said. Patrol officers on the other hand, top out at $115,000 putting “hundreds of sergeants” making less than thousands of their subordinates, Fox reported.
A sergeant could miss out on $80,000 to $100,000 over the course of a career, Vallelong told Fox News Digital and questioned the city’s “priorities.”
“It doesn’t seem like anyone’s priorities are in the right place, because back in the ’90s, when the city needed to be turned around and we corrected crime, it was the NYPD that did it,” Vallelong told Fox News Digital.
“They’re bleeding money, the city, in all the wrong places,” Vallelong said. “Somebody in city governance either needs to go, or they really need to sit down and think this through and go back to basics. … Go back to basic math. Go back to basic economics.”
New York City has been under fire for putting the well being and protection of illegal aliens before American citizens who pay into the system. And now, those taxpayers could be on the hook for roughly $170 million to promote sergeants to top pay and keep sergeants from continuing to jump ship, according to Fox.
But it gets worse.
Many sergeants are already working second jobs as well as taking on more menial assignments within the department due to the high cost of living and staff shortages, sapping motivation for sergeants to go for promotional exams and programs, Fox reported.
Contract negotiations that were supposed to have happened during the beginning of February were postponed and Vallelong has accused NYC Mayor Eric Adams of ignoring SBA’s proposals and prioritizing illegals.
“The mayor was a sergeant at one point in time. He had to be in order to get to the point where he’s at,” Vallelong said. “And you would think that he would understand this more than anybody else, because I guarantee you that if push came to shove, he’s not taking this rank unless he’s getting compensated the right way.”
“The mayor was just up in Albany asking for more money for migrants,” Vallelong continued. “I know he’s had meetings with the president … maybe he should ask the president to step in like Clinton did back in those years and pass a bill in order to further law enforcement and recruit people and make it more of a respectable job again.”
“We are currently going through the mediation process with the SBA and are committed to coming to a fair solution that will continue to protect public safety,” a spokesperson for New York City Mayor Eric Adams told Fox Digital on Monday.
Our NYPD Sergeants are critical—they supervise officers, ensure safety, and uphold accountability for victims of crime. Yet, 1,200 Sergeants are making less than those they supervise. The Mayor promised a deal at his State of the City—what are we waiting for?@sbanypd President… https://t.co/4RhSYWi1KI
— Robert Holden (@BobHoldenNYC) February 11, 2025
A spokesperson from City Hall told Fox they will take up the issue “directly” with the feds and admitted the migrant crisis has put a strain on resources.
Obviously!
“We have already spent over $7 billion on this crisis alone, and the previous administration committed only $237 million in funding to help house the migrants in our care and for future services,” a City Hall spokesperson told Fox on Monday. “We have continued to receive previously allocated reimbursements through the past week. We will discuss this matter directly with federal officials.”
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