A potential $1 billion in cuts to the NYPD’s budget isn’t on the table within the department, First Deputy Commissioner Benjamin Tucker told the City Council’s Committee on Public Safety on Tuesday.
“No, we’re not,” Tucker said with a laugh when asked by committee chair Donovan Richards (D-Queens) whether the department was on board with the 10-figure cut to its $6 billion budget.
Members of the council’s progressive caucus have signaled support for criminal justice reformers requesting the hefty cut amid protests and renewed scrutiny of policing sparked by the death of George Floyd, a black man killed May 25 when a white Minneapolis cop kneeled on his neck.
Mayor Bill de Blasio on Sunday vowed that an unspecified amount of funding would be steered from the NYPD to various youth groups and social services, a move endorsed by Commissioner Dermot Shea.
But Tucker — the highest-ranking NYPD member at Tuesday’s virtual hearing — made clear that a $1 billion cut isn’t in play, at least as far as the department is concerned.
“That’s what’s been proposed,” he said. “We’re not looking at a billion dollars. That would be seriously harmful to the department and to the city, frankly.
“But there are discussions about what the number would look like, what we’re willing to do, to try to balance that vision … against the impact that it’ll have on enforcement operations in the city.”
Tucker offered no specifics on exactly what cuts he would or would not support, nor did he suggest a figure he’d consider more appropriate.