Major American cities are still suffering from rising crime and diminishing police forces in the aftermath of the “defund the police” movement that emerged from the 2020 George Floyd riots.
Zohran Mamdani, the self-described socialist and New York City Democrat mayoral candidate, and other notable Democrats are distancing themselves from the now-unpopular call to reduce police presence on city streets as recent violence in Cincinnati and Manhattan places public safety back in the spotlight.
But despite the shift in public messaging, cities around the country are facing a crisis of law and order.
1. New York City
According to data from the New York Police Department, more than 1,000 officers left the department in the first three months of 2025, an increase in retirements of 91% from 2024 numbers.
Democrat Mayor Eric Adams announced in 2023 that the Big Apple’s police department would drop to just 29,000 police officers by 2025, a number not seen by the city since the 1990s. The 2024 budget plan revealed that the city would cut the next five classes in the police academy, meaning it won’t be graduating new officers for the next five years.
The decline in New York City police officers is an intensification of a trend that started prior to the defund movement. The Big Apple has lost over 15,000 police officers in the last 10 years. Nearly a quarter of officers (23%) reported that they wanted to leave the department “as soon as a feasible opportunity arises,” according to a November 2024 survey conducted by the John Jay College of Criminal Justice.
Emergency response times have taken a hit from the police shortages. The average police response time for a crime rated as “critical” hovers around 10 minutes, up over three minutes from a 6.8-minute average in 2019, according to the New York City government website.
Mamdani’s X posts from 2020 resurfaced recently, exposing his anti-police sentiment. He said in June 2020, “We don’t need an investigation to know that the NYPD is racist, anti-queer, & a major threat to public safety. What we need is to #DefundTheNYPD.”
2. Philadelphia
Philadelphia is facing its smallest police force since 1985. Under Democrat Mayor Cherelle Parker, the city ended 2024 with roughly 1,500 fewer officers than budgeted, losing 500 officers in the mayor’s first year in office in 2024. At the start of 2025, the 5,021 officers on the force were short of the 6,380 Philadelphia should have for its population of 1.5 million, according to a report from The Philadelphia Citizen.
If the city were to restore its police force, 75 officers would need to join every six weeks for several years, according to Police Commissioner Kevin Bethel.
Parker is ramping up her funding for police, but even her efforts won’t get the city anywhere near its allotted number. Parker’s 2025 fiscal plan provides $150 million for public safety, with funding for only 400 new officers, leaving over 1,000 empty spots.
3. Chicago
The Windy City is down over 1,300 officers, according to the American Police Beat, a news magazine covering police enforcement and public safety.
Police retention is increasingly difficult. The Chicago Sun-Times reported that the average career at the Chicago Police Department is now under three years. Recruiting has also become harder, especially after widespread anti-police sentiment during the George Floyd riots. Chicago Police Superintendent Larry Snelling told the Sun-Times, “It’s been really hard across the country since 2020 to get officers anywhere.”
In 2018, Chicago hired 1,258 new officers, according to the Chicago Sun Times. By 2024, that number dropped to just 103.
Former Police Chief Tom Weitzel of Riverside, Illinois, a suburb of Chicago, noted the lack of interest in public service for younger generations.
“When I took the exam in Riverside, there were over 300 people that attended the exam at Riverside Brookfield High School,” Weitzel told the Sun-Times. “When I left, the last exam that we gave in Riverside that I participated in, 2021, 10 applicants showed up.”
4. Cincinnati
Cincinnati’s streets made national headlines last week when a white couple was attacked and severely beaten by a black mob outside a downtown business district.
The city government’s response alarmed many: Democrat Mayor Aftab Pureval left the city and went on vacation after hearing about the attack, and Councilwoman Victoria Parks posted on Facebook in response to a viral video of the beatings, “They begged for that beat down! I am grateful for the whole story.”
Cincinnati’s police department is plagued by similar problems with understaffing. The city currently has around 1,000 sworn police officers, just 60 shy of the number it needs, but police officers warn of a potential drop in that number by the end of the year, according to Cincinnati’s WLWT-5 news station.
Cincinnati Fraternal Order of Police President Ken Kober said the police force could be short nearly 180 officers by the end of 2025.
City Council members are worried about the urgency of the issue. “Talk to any police officer, talk to any citizen out there. We need more officers, period,” Council Member Seth Walsh told news station WKRC-TV. “The officers we have now are overworked. They’re stretched too thin. We don’t have enough for the bare minimum from the city. We need more police officers.”
5. Pittsburgh
Pittsburgh faces a 20-year low in police staffing in 2025. The city currently employs 755 officers, but TribLive, a local news source in Western Pennsylvania, reported that only 269 of those police officers are on patrol beats.
The number of Pittsburgh police officers has steadily declined since 2019, the last year the city had over 1,000 police officers. A total of 205 officers left the department in the last two years.
City Councilman Anthony Coghill described the situation to TribLive as “frightening.”
In 2024, the Pittsburgh police department announced it would no longer personally answer 911 calls between the hours of 3 a.m. and 7 a.m. that were not deemed “in progress” situations. Calls instead are rerouted to a telephone reporting unit, which is checked each morning at 7 a.m.
The police department is currently led by an acting chief, its fifth leader in three years, according to TribLive. Tony Moreno, the GOP nominee for city mayor and a former Pittsburgh police officer, said, “Staffing is the biggest issue in the police department. … We’re all looking at this and saying, ‘How are we functioning this way?’ And you can see it in the streets.”
Democrat Mayor Ed Gainey has decreased the budgeted number of police officers from 900 to 800 since taking office in 2022, according to Pittsburgh’s Public Source.
Police unions have also raised concerns about anti-police sentiment expressed by city Chief Operating and Administrative Officer Lisa Frank. In 2020, Frank posted, “Why do we continue to fund these police departments? I am certain that black and brown communities could use the same resources to develop and fund real public safety for everyone.”
Lucy Spence is an intern for The Daily Signal.
Reprinted with Permission from The Daily Signal – By Lucy Spence
The opinions expressed by columnists are their own and do not necessarily represent the views of AMAC or AMAC Action.
Can you blame the police officers who quit or retired early, while they were being vilified by the BLM/pamtifa activists and liberal politicians in the cities they protected and served? Now these DUMBA$$ liberals are pushing the social worker agenda that failed in 2020. Insanity prevails….
It all makes sense if you understand one thing about the far-left / democrats. Their objective is not to make America better. It’s not to make the middle class safer. It’s not to improve economic opportunity. The left’s objective, plain and simple, is to tear down America, the family, and capitalism so it can rebuild the country as a Socialist nation perpetually ruled by the Democrats.
When you view the actions of just about any democrat under this lens, everything they do makes sense, within their objective.
Need to correct error in previous comment — the error was made by the so-called spell check system not me .The word “defend ” is printed instead of “defund ” I always check twice the spelling before sending a comment. This incorrect spelling occured after the comment was sent. It just happened again a minute ago as I was checking the spelling for this comment. ! I will repeat the whole sentence — “This is a time for correcting that mistake that involved the DEFUND the police mentality.
Everyone known what is needed here, if only everyone voted for it and dems. were not allowed to cheat. As long as the law of the mob is allowed to rule a little will change. The ones who are affected the most by defund the police policies are the ones voting for those advocating it Beyond help.
This happened over in Seattle area too…sanctuary city now…awful.
Perversion from the Left is insane. We want and need Police protection. These fools need to get out of America.
Praise for your great work writing this important article Lucy Spence — this information is appreciated. Without adequate law enforcement the Country is in jeopardy in many ways at many levels . This is a time for correcting that mistake that involved the defend the police mentality.And bringing the number of officers up to what is required should take place soon as possible.
With the political thinking of these “woke” lawless cities, why would anyone want to put their lives on the line? Why work in a revolving door policy of criminals captured and released back onto the streets with no bail or jail time served to continue their crimes?
Why would anyone go to work for a city that not only doesn’t want you but the city management doesn’t support you. Doesn’t sound like a job with many benefits or a bright future. No wonder they have a shortage.
I hate these places COPPING OUT like this!
A correction needed again — the spell check system error again – sent Fed Up a reply message and instead of spelling Fed Up correctly it was spelled incorrectly as Fes Up. The spell check system is not a good system at all.
Good! It will take a geat deal of personal pain and threats of violence to finally convince voters to make civilized changes in their communities. Until situations get so dire and vile as to influence people to begin paying attention to the low-quality of those elected to public office, decline in public services will continue. No one wants to be a peace office where obviously not welcome.
Notice these are all mostly democratic leadership states. They all support illegal immigration as well. You cannot expect policemen & women to join the force and put their life on the line when the community has already shown that tgey do not choose law & order except when it suits them.
The Cincinnati Police went on strike for one day in May of 1979. It was called a “stress day”. They ( the police) had had enough. The government of the City of Cincinnati has had an adversarial relationship with it’s police for decades. There was a time frame when Cincinnati had more officers murdered than Los Angeles and New York City combined. I had never had a desire to be a Cincinnati police officer.
I will direct you to the Greater Cincinnati Police Historical Society website. Look under the heading of Fallen Officers. Read about the murder of Cincinnati Officer Melvin Henze, and the aftermath / epilogue. This was in 1979. Today, not much has changed. Who in their right mind would be a cop today, especially in Cincinnati and like-run cities?!! The politicians who run these cities will tell you that you don’t need a gun, and the police will protect you. Oh, the f-ing lies they tell! This is how the communists operate. Lather, rinse, repeat.
YO, protesters of everydamnthing; be real careful what you wish for….