The Base Salary Is Not So Great But You Should See What They Make With Commissions

Everything’s working out exactly as planned:

Low pay is forcing more and more NYPD recruits to bail out of the Police Academy before they can graduate, the Daily News has learned. Nearly 7% of the current class quit in the first four weeks, sources told The News.

That’s about twice the first-month dropout rate of the July 2005 class, the last academy class before a state arbitration panel slashed starting pay from $36,878 to $25,100.

. . .

The NYPD always loses cops in the academy, especially in the opening weeks when newbies first encounter the department’s tough training. Before the pay cut, about 3% of the class dropped out in the first four weeks. But since January last year, between 6% and 7% of the class has left in the opening weeks.

More than half — 57% — of the 95 recruits who have already left the current class said the chief reason they were leaving was because they just couldn’t live on a starting cop’s salary, sources told The News.

. . .

“It’s kind of scary how poor I am right now,” said a 25-year-old cop in the current academy class.

He said he borrowed $2,000 to cover the costs to buy his uniform, nightstick, memo book, handcuffs and rain gear. The department buys new cops a gun and pepper spray.

The Bronx resident, who didn’t want his name used, hoped he could balance his checkbook to make it through the six-month training program, after which the salary rises to the slightly more livable $32,700.

“I guess it’s part of the whole boot-camp, break-you-so-they-can-rebuild-you thing,” he said. “But you feel like the city is giving you the back of the hand when you look at your paycheck stub.”

Earlier: I’ll Show You What Selling Out The Unborn Really Looks Like; New York’s Finest Receiving Food Stamps?