Staten Island pols are urging the NYPD to fight surging crime in the bluest borough by reassigning officers there from sections of the Big Apple represented by lefty, cop-hating City Council members, The Post has learned.
“Many [Council members] have signed pledges to ‘defund the NYPD’ and have expressed a preference to remove public safety agencies altogether,” Councilmen Joseph Borelli and David Carr and Borough President Vito Fossella wrote in a letter Wednesday to NYPD Commissioner Keechant Sewell.
“Our response is simple: If they don’t want police in their communities, we’ll take them.”
“Reassign NYPD officers from districts whose representatives want to defund the police to Staten Island, where we could use their help,” adds the letter.
Although there’s been slight decreases in most major crimes citywide this year through April 23 compared to the same span last year, Staten Island has not been as fortunate.
The so-called “Forgotten Borough” — long known as a bedroom community for cops and other civil servants — has seen reported rapes rise 133%, robberies 50%, burglaries 37%, felony assaults 32%, and grand larceny 5%, troubling NYPD records show.
There’s been five murders this year, up 150% from two reported during the same period in 2022.
The startling crime spike follows “a multi-year citywide trend that has seen public safety headed in the wrong direction,” according to the trio of Republicans.
They said they “appreciate and fully support” Sewell’s efforts to “reverse this trend — despite the political headwinds [she has] faced” from the far left, noting “many of our colleagues in government do not feel the same.”
“There are still quite a few members of the City Council who continue to push anti-police, pro-crime policies,” they said.
The ‘Island retreat’ proposal was previously discussed behind closed doors last year during internal budget discussions between some Council members. “You may be surprised to know that it was not met with much pushback from members on either side of the conversation. However, because the [Council] lacks the authority over the units of appropriation between each command, it could not negotiate a deal,” the pols wrote.
Two Democratic Council members familiar with the talks confirmed they occurred informally multiple times, but believe they were made in jest.
But some moderate Dems would love seeing progressive caucus members forced to decide whether they’d risk political suicide by truly agreeing to cut cops patrolling their neighborhoods.
“I think there’s some members who’d appreciate having the mayor” saying he supports the Staten Island pols’ plan “because it would expose the hypocrisy of many of the [anti-cop] members,” said one Dem.
In February, the Council’s Progressive Caucus experienced a mass exodus, losing nearly half its members, many who left out of fear its “Defund the Police” rallying cry was becoming a political albatross.
The move came after the former members refused to sign on to a new “statement of principles” promising to “do everything we can to reduce the size and scope of the NYPD and the Department of Correction.”
Of the Council’s 51 members, 20 remain in the caucus, including co-chairs and Brooklyn Democrats Lincoln Restler and Shahana Hanif as well as Queens Democratic Socialist Tiffany Cabán.
Borelli on Friday clarified that he believes police precincts in neighborhoods represented by “Defund-the-NYPD” council members should remain open for emergency calls.
Patrol officers and other resources should be moved to Staten Island and other parts of the city that “welcome” police protection, he added.
Fabien Levy, a spokesman for Mayor Eric Adams, said his office will review the letter but added “the NYPD will always serve and protect every community in this city.”
Messages left with the NYPD and Restler were not returned. Council Speaker Adrienne Adams, who serves as an “ex officio” member of the Progressive Caucus and other caucuses because of her speakership, declined comment.
