Yonkers Police Hiring 42 New Officers

[x635 4,066]

Just a heads up if you're on the Yonkers PD list....they're hiring 42 if I'm reading correctly. I beleive this will be from the list of the test from December..

Yonkers mayor, council agree on police overtime, hires

By MICHAEL GANNON

THE JOURNAL NEWS

(Original publication: July 12, 2006)

YONKERS — Mayor Phil Amicone and the City Council have reached an agreement to hire 20 police officers in exchange for the council's pledge to fully fund police overtime this year.

Councilmen Dennis Robertson, D-3rd District, and Liam McLaughlin, R-4th District, sought the new officers to increase a police presence in southwest Yonkers, where there were three homicides last month.

Amicone, however, countered that a quicker — and better — way to combat the violence would be to pay experienced officers overtime, because they have already gone through the police academy and know the neighborhoods and people.

After a week of negotiations involving the mayor, the council and the police union, all sides will get what they wanted. The council will fund overtime this year to combat the immediate problem, while the mayor agreed to send 20 additional officers to the class of 22 entering the police academy. Those 22 are replacing retirees and filling other vacancies.

"Our first responsibility is to provide for the public safety of the people of Yonkers and putting more officers on the streets will help us to better fulfill that responsibility, especially in southwest Yonkers where residents are too often threatened by the proliferation of gangs and drugs," Amicone said in a written statement.

Robertson said the council had never intended to cut overtime.

"We think, especially with the rash of new development, that Yonkers needs additional police officers," Robertson said.

The new hires will be funded from a contingency account the council created when it approved the $806.4 million city budget last month. Of the $1.4 million cost, $400,000 will come from the existing overtime budget and the rest from the $1.6 million contingency fund.

The council, in a special meeting last night, approved a budget transfer to fund the new officers.

The Yonkers Police Department has about 600 sworn members.

Edited July 13, 2006 by x635

[20y2 43]

Somethings telling me that they aren't going to be 'new' officers, but will in fact be transfers from other departments. The WC Police Academy probably does not have the ability to add 20 people to the class roster this late in the game, seeing as though the academy starts in 2 weeks.

Edited July 13, 2006 by 20y2