Houston Police Union, ICE Take Aim at Recruiting NYPD Officers after Election of Zohran Mamdani
What to know
• ICE and Houston's police union are actively recruiting potentially disgruntled NYPD officers amid unrest over Mayor-elect Zohran Mamdani, using ads that highlight better pay, support and leadership.
• ICE’s campaign appeals to officers seeking respect and stability, while Houston’s social media ads directly criticize Mamdani and offer bonuses up to $50,000.
• NYPD union leaders warn attrition is outpacing hiring, with roughly 316 officers leaving each month and calls growing for city officials to address the department’s staffing crisis.
The federal government is not alone. The city of Houston has made a pitch to NYPD cops that explicitly calls out the new mayor.
“NYPD, are you disgusted with the election of Zohran Mamdani,” Houston’s Facebook ad says. “Join us. The Houston Police Department is hiring police officers.”
Among the enticements are signing bonuses up to $50,000, a “supportive mayor and city council,” affordable housing and a police chief who is “a retired Texas Ranger, not a politician.”
The ICE ads come amid rising tension between city officials and the federal government over ICE’s aggressive detention and deportation efforts across the five boroughs.
The outside offers come as New York City transitions from a mayor who was once a member of the police rank-and-file to a new leader who once backed efforts to defund the NYPD and posted sharp criticisms of NYPD officers on social media. Mamdani has since backed off those hard=line stances and adopted a more moderate tone, but has sparked concern over his plan to have mental health agents replace cops at some domestic and subway incidents.
Meanwhile, union leaders have warned city officials about the department’s declining ranks.
Last week, Mayor Eric Adams announced a plan to increase the NYPD’s headcount by 5,000 members. The NYPD’s current budgeted headcount is 35,001, a figure the Department has not reached in five years, officials said.
In August, the NYPD announced it was swearing in nearly 1,100 new officers who were entering the Police Academy to begin six months of training.
But according to Patrick Hendry, president of the Police Benevolent Association union, an average of 316 police officers have quit or filed for retirement each month this year.
If attrition continues at that pace, he said, the NYPD will lose nearly 1,900 officers by the time this new class is ready to hit the streets.
Hendry said the recruitment effort is a wake up call.
“Recruiting ads targeting New York City police officers are nothing new – we’ve been seeing them for years, Hendry said. “Every law enforcement agency in the country knows that our members are overworked, underpaid and subjected to endless demonization and second-guessing. We need our city leaders to work with us on fixing those issues. Otherwise, more talented cops will walk out the door.”
Hendry said Mamdani has to be committed to working with the NYPD.
“If Mayor-elect Mamdani is serious about protecting this city, he must work with us to address the NYPD’s historic staffing crisis,” Hendry said. “The mass exodus of police officers didn’t begin on Tuesday night. It has been going on for years, and the time to fix it is now.”
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