NYPD Wants to Hire 450 Cops to Fight ISIS

The ISIS bogeyman strikes again. New York Police Chief Bill Bratton announced today that he is seeking approval to hire an additional 450 police officers to counter the threat of ISIS. With the average annual salary of a new police officer at over $44,000, this would cost the city roughly $20,000,000 per year; and all for an organization that has never attacked the city. The officers would be working with the NYPD’s counter-terrorism unit, which is also responsible for monitoring protests throughout the city.

Despite his claims that “We are entering a new era where we cannot live in fear, but we have to live increasingly aware of our surroundings” his suggestion sounds an awful lot like it’s based on fear, rather than sound reasoning. The average American is much more likely to die from something mundane like food poisoning or slipping in the bathtub, than they are from terrorism. But Bill Bratton still thinks that we need to spend millions of dollars on armed bureaucrats.

Furthermore, I don’t think anybody really believes that more cops will actually prevent terrorism. In most cases, terrorist plots are either provocateured by intelligence and law enforcement agencies, or are foiled by ordinary citizens. New York’s City Hall is also unimpressed by the scaremongering, and previously snubbed the City Council’s request for an additional 1,000 police officers.