[newwahoo]

"So for $60,000,000 (sounds like a lot, but...) you could have three meter maids just ride around the city and write people checks for what they lost to robbers, and fire the one third of cops that should be handling that one third of crime, and NYC would save a little over $1 BILLION dollars. The $60M to compensate victims is insignificant. "

I think you've lost your mind unless you're investing in a new crime fraud business.

Hey I just lost a grand to some mugger. Can I get my check now?

[eno_]

Of course it is ridiculous. But so is $100k per solved crime. That number has to improve by 10X before you are even in the ballpark of being effective against crime. At current solution rates and prices, the NYPD amounts to trowing money away at a furious pace while doing almost nothing against crimes other than murder (maybe rape, too, I don't know the stats). Against robbery and burglary, the NYPD is impotent.

So far, according to your numbers, the number of police will fall, by next year, to something like 20% below peak levels.

Did the budget number decline, too? In 2001 it was about $3.5 BILLION. A big number, no matter how you slice it. Is it 20% lower now? Will the number of solved crimes per cop go up? What, if anything, is being done to improve that number.