The city will be able to put more cops on the streets, beginning with 400 before the year is out and 3,500 by 2013, thanks to an influx of federal money, a city congressman said yesterday.
Rep. Anthony Weiner (D-Brooklyn-Queens) said about $1 billion of the massive $787 billion stimulus Congress approved last month will go to put 400 new officers on the streets of the city.
“We expect to see boots on the ground in calendar year 2009,” Weiner said.
A Wiener spokesman clarified that it was up to the NYPD to decide whether it could take advantage of the money this year.
That could be a problem because the NYPD is slated to churn out only 250 cops in 2009 – a reduction in academy class size brought on by the economic crisis – and wouldn’t comment yesterday on whether the department would change that plan in light of the new money.
The 3,500 cops will come courtesy of the Community Oriented Policing Services program.