De Blasio says no to $1 billion in NYPD cuts, too early to give an exact price tag

FILE - Mayor Bill de Blasio declined to say how much money he plans to cut from the NYPD’s budget and said the ultimate amount would be determined through negotiations with the City Council and would depend on whether the city gets financial relief from the federal government and state permission to expand its borrowing capacity.
FILE - Mayor Bill de Blasio declined to say how much money he plans to cut from the NYPD’s budget and said the ultimate amount would be determined through negotiations with the City Council and would depend on whether the city gets financial relief from the federal government and state permission to expand its borrowing capacity. (Albin Lohr-Jones/Sipa USA via AP)

Haggling over slashing the NYPD’s budget began in earnest Monday as Mayor de Blasio said he won’t approve the $1 billion in cuts being demanded by staffers, elected officials and advocates.
De Blasio was bombarded with questions Monday morning over rumors that a shake-up of the NYPD’s leadership is imminent and that such a move stemmed from a heated exchange that allegedly took place between himself, Police Commissioner Dermot Shea and NYPD Chief of Department Terence Monahan.
Shea was notably absent from the mayor’s Monday morning press conference.
De Blasio denied those rumors and said that Shea is on board with the cuts, which will result in cash being diverted from the NYPD to youth programs.
But the mayor declined to say how much money he plans to cut from the NYPD’s budget and said the ultimate amount would be determined through negotiations with the City Council and would depend on whether the city gets financial relief from the federal government and state permission to expand its borrowing capacity.
When asked if he would back $1 billion in cuts to the NYPD, he gave a curt one-word response: “No.”
“Something substantial, yes,” he said. “That will be subject to negotiation. The first thing I want to see it go to is youth programs.”
“I’m not going to give you a number today,” he added.
Over the past week, elected officials and current and former staffers have pilloried de Blasio for his handling of the NYPD and its conduct during protests over the killing of George Floyd, a black man, who died after a Minneapolis police officer held him down by the neck for nearly nine minutes.
So far, at least three NYPD officers have been suspended or transferred over their actions during protests.
As discontent with the NYPD reached a fevered pitch, Comptroller Scott Stringer has called on de Blasio to cut the NYPD budget by $1 billion over four years, and Councilmen Antonio Reynoso and Brad Lander both have demanded significant cuts to the police force.
De Blasio said Monday that he reassured staffers over the weekend that reforming the NYPD would be front and center of his agenda for the remainder of his term. That comes after several letters among staffers criticizing his leadership have surfaced in recent days.
In one of the letters — which was circulated among staff at the Mayor’s Office of Criminal Justice and others — calls on de Blasio to “disinvest from police.”
Among those who signed off on it are Eric Cumberbatch, deputy director of the Office of Neighborhood Safety and former Children’s Services Commissioner Gladys Carrion.
“We’re going to speed up the discipline process. There’s a lot of change coming,” de Blasio said during one Monday morning interview on WPIX. “I have a year-and-a-half and I’m going to get a lot done in that year-and-a-half.”

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