Residency rules hit home in odd ways
NYC Mayor Eric Adams said NYPD officers should live in the city. Credit: AP/Susan Walsh
Consider the case of an NYPD officer living in New Hyde Park who commutes 12 miles each day to her job at the 109th Precinct in Flushing.
Now compare her routine to that of another officer traveling more than 40 miles from his home in Staten Island’s Tottenville section to work in the 40th Precinct in Mott Haven in the Bronx.
It’s hard to guess which member of the Finest would be more rooted in, or closer to, the community he or she patrols. But under a flat city-only residency rule perennially suggested by some elected officials — and long rejected in Albany — the Nassau County residence would be a no-no while the Richmond-to-Bronx commute would not.
That is, the longer of the two rides, into a very different landscape, would be legal because it occurred within the New York City boroughs.
Presumably, Mayor Eric Adams’ declaration that all his former colleagues in blue ought to live in the city is intended to help the NYPD get away from resembling an occupying force from elsewhere. More than half of the 35,000-member NYPD live outside the city, and about a third of the force lives on Long Island, a department spokeswoman told Newsday this week.
But there are curveballs and limits to its practical and political benefits, as Adams seems to know. And the smart money says a residency revolution still won’t happen any time soon.
"I’m going to find other ways to reach the overall goal — and that is to get New York City police officers living in New York City, so they could spend their tax dollars in New York City, so they can have their children go to school, go to houses of worship, go to cleaners, spend their money here," Adams told 1010 WINS this week.
That said, the lack of a Republican-run State Senate — a traditional ally of the New York City Police Benevolent Association — makes it conceivable that a five-boroughs-only residency for police could at some point reach the governor’s desk.
And the mayor, facing contract talks, has an unusual advantage if he feels like pushing the PBA’s buttons. The politics of 2020 drove PBA President Patrick Lynch to endorse President Donald Trump for reelection, leaving the union isolated in city electoral politics. Lynch tilted toward Adams who likely wouldn’t have found an outright PBA endorsement very useful anyway against a field of progressive primary candidates.
Making cops adhere to the same residency law in effect for some other city employees could have other pitfalls. Currently, police officers, firefighters and correction officers may live in both Long Island counties, as well as Rockland, Orange, Putnam and Westchester.
Senate Majority Leader Andrea Stewart-Cousins comes from Westchester. Does she want to stir potential backlash from some of her uniformed constituents even if the proposed law applies only to future hires?
It is hard to believe Long Islanders in her caucus would find such a residency vote less problematic at election time than supporting a new tax or bail reform, which hurt Sen. Todd Kaminsky when he ran for Nassau DA.
If Adams took a hard line on residency, it could also splash back on him. Critics would inevitably rekindle stories that surfaced during last fall’s campaign about how he co-owns a co-op in Fort Lee, New Jersey, with his partner who lives there.
Everything about the politics of residency requirements is complicated, which is essentially why these rules tend not to change once in place.
Columnist Dan Janison’s opinions are his own.
Dan Janison is a member of the Newsday editorial board.
