The reality of low-pay is driving a high number of NYPD recruits to quit the police academy.
Officials say 165 recruits have dropped out of this year's class of 1,131. That's more than 14 percent, and it means the class could eventually fall below 800 graduates.
That would threaten programs in high-crime neighborhoods.
Police Commissioner Ray Kelly reportedly told the City Council the department's successful Operation Impact program will be at risk if the NYPD can't graduate at least 800 per class. And if the attrition rate holds among the remaining 966 recruits, officials say that could become a reality.
Many of the drop-outs say the department's starting salary of $25,100 is just not enough to keep them in uniform.
"You get those first paychecks, and suddenly you realize that doing the right thing, protecting your city, doesn't pay anything," a 27-year-old former recruit told the Daily News. He dropped out after two months for a better-paying job in a shoe store. "All your patriotism goes out the window when you can't pay the rent."
Experts say the attrition rate is higher than the two-month dropout rate for the January 2007 and July 2006 classes. Those classes lost 11.5 percent and 13.6 percent, respectively, in the first two months and 23 percent and 20 percent by graduation.
The commissioner assigns two-thirds of each graduating academy class to high-crime areas. Kelly says a graduating class of 800 or less will cover regular attrition, but there won't be enough bodies left for Operation Impact.
A recent study conducted at NYU credited the Impact technique with driving crime rates down in the targeted zones, which in turn has pushed murder and overall crime to historic lows.
The city is on track to have fewer than 500 murders this year, according to the newspaper.
An arbitration panel dropped the NYPD starting salary to $25,100 starting with the class of January 2006. The pay jumps to $32,813 once the new cops graduate from the academy.
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