N.Y.P.D. Will Not Face Budget Cuts After All, Adams Says

Mayor Eric Adams said on Wednesday that the city had restored funding to the New York Police Department and would add 600 recruits in April, a reversal of the dire warning he gave in November that there would be a hiring freeze.

Mayor Adams said that “better-than-anticipated tax revenue” and reduced spending on care for migrants who have been arriving by the thousands had allowed the city to avoid cuts to both the Police and Fire Departments.

The recruits will join three classes already scheduled to graduate this year, “meaning thousands of additional cops on our streets in 2024 under this administration,” Mayor Adams said during a news conference at City Hall.

“More police officers means safer streets, safer subways and a safer New York City,” he said.

When the mayor announced the hiring freeze in November, some in New York politics said they found it difficult to believe that Mr. Adams, a former police captain who has tied his identity to the department, would go forward with the cuts. They questioned whether the mayor’s warnings were an effort to get President Biden’s attention over the migrant crisis or were a negotiating tactic in the annual budget dance with the City Council.