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leo
one can't get a ticket unless one broke the law

As a lifelong New Yorker (and son of a police officer), I'm concerned about the quality of the officers today.
Whenever I see a police officer on the subway, invariably, they seem more involved with their cell phone (talking, texting, etc) than doing their duty. I can not believe this behavior is tolerated by the brass.

I live in Williamsburg and you can't go 2 blocks in the south side without bumping into at least 2 idle rookies. When they are "busy" it is for tickets for important "crimes" like bike riding infractions and not holding a dogs leash. Maybe they should just distribute the cops we already have more evenly or to neighborhoods where there is a higher need. Even with this plethora of street cops a car alarm still went off at 3 in the morning for 1/2 an hour. I think it is a great way to save some money in New York.

Maybe the police could stop harassing critic mass, for example.

is this guy a spokesperson for the PBA?
$100,000 a year salery for a beat cop?

and then after 20 years they retire on half pay of the LAST YEAR when they rack up a bunch of overtime in order to leech as much as possible for the rest of their lives?

And we are after the BANKERS?

I agree with #2 hjs - There need to be reforms to reduce the paperwork; remove police officers from tax collection/revenue generation duties. As we have built an anti-terrorism task force, there should be a task force trained dedicated to tackle fraud and organized crime such as gangs. There does not seem to be an effort in that area and in fact the NYPD will not address fraud reports.

Isn't there a concern that at any given time there are about 20-30% of police officers on duty are not doing police work but are working on generating revenue for the CIty? - Isn't it a waste of taxpayer's dollars that we invest thousands to train police officers and we use them to ticket people while we get no help in preventing and fighting crimes.

A recent arrest for shoplifting less than $20 in make up lead to 13 hour of police overtime doing the paperwork etc.
Why can’t arrest processing and other police functions be modernized and streamlined to keep cops out on the street?

First they cut the police force. Then crime increases. Then they cut all the other services, like garbage pickup. Rents go down, as people get out of the city and move to the suburbs. Pretty soon, Manhattan returns to 70's style grunge just in time for Hollywood to remake "Escape From New York". Hopefully, they'll close down Disneyland in Times Square and reopen Playland.