{"id":239619,"date":"2026-05-21T19:14:25","date_gmt":"2026-05-21T19:14:25","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/239619\/"},"modified":"2026-05-21T19:14:25","modified_gmt":"2026-05-21T19:14:25","slug":"nypd-would-hire-older-recruits-under-bill-proposed-by-new-york-city-council","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/239619\/","title":{"rendered":"NYPD would hire older recruits under bill proposed by New York City Council"},"content":{"rendered":"

The new maximum age for applicants seeking to become NYPD cops would be 42, according to legislation being considered by the New York City Council to raise the age from the current maximum of 34.<\/p>\n

On Wednesday, two key officials \u2014 NYPD Commissioner Jessica Tisch and Council Speaker Julie Menin \u2014 voiced support for the legislation, Introduction 913 of 2026<\/a>. The bill, if it becomes law,\u00a0would help offset attrition, which Menin said is roughly 8.25% to 10% annually, so the NYPD can maintain its authorized headcount of 36,000 cops.<\/p>\n

Menin, whose support as the speaker almost certainly assures its passage,\u00a0said Tisch called her about the need for the change.<\/p>\n

Under the legislation, a person could be 42 when applying to take the civil service test; thus, a successful applicant could be even older when appointed to the job. The legislation would also let applicants who have been on military duty to be even older than 42\u00a0\u2014 by up to six years.<\/p>\n

Bill sponsor Amanda Far\u00edas said the legislation, which\u00a0was drafted after conversations with Tisch’s office, labor unions and police precincts in her district, “allows the city to tap into a broader pool of mature, experienced candidates.”<\/p>\n

“The NYPD is facing ongoing recruitment and retention challenges that are putting strain on officers and impacting public safety,” Farias, who represents portions of the Bronx on the council, told Newsday.\u00a0<\/p>\n

“At the same time, there are qualified New Yorkers, including veterans, former law enforcement personnel, security professionals and individuals with other valuable work experience who are currently excluded from even taking the exam solely because of age.”<\/p>\n

Sam Raskin, a spokesman for Mayor Zohran Mamdani, Tisch\u2019s boss, says the administration backs the proposal, and is reviewing the bill\u2019s language and would work with the NYPD and council to implement it.<\/p>\n

At an unrelated event in the Bronx to announce a bureaucratic change to how the borough is policed, Tisch thanked Far\u00edas for backing the bill.<\/p>\n

The current\u00a0law sets a mandatory retirement age of 62 for NYPD cops. A person who is hired when older than 42 would be not able to work for the department for the 20 years that qualifies a cop for a full pension.\u00a0<\/p>\n

Roughly one-third of NYPD cops live on Long Island.\u00a0<\/p>\n

Different departments set various limits for the maximum age at which a person can work for a police force, but most American departments place the age in the\u00a030s or 40s.<\/p>\n

Suffolk\u2019s maximum age is 42 on the date of the written exam; Nassau\u2019s<\/a> is 34\u00a0on exam day, although both counties have similar allowances for older applicants who have been in the military. The city and Nassau allow 17-year-olds to take the exam; Suffolk requires a test-taker to be 19.\u00a0<\/p>\n

New York City’s maximum age had been 29 until the early 1990s, when it went up to 34. Older applicants had sued, unsuccessfully, to raise the age, alleging\u00a0illegal discrimination, but a judge rejected the claim, citing the right of governments to enforce minimum\u00a0standards for the job.<\/p>\n

\"Matthew<\/p>\n

\n\tMatthew Chayes, a Newsday reporter since 2007, covers New York City.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"The new maximum age for applicants seeking to become NYPD cops would be 42, according to legislation being…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":239620,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[39],"tags":[303,4275,9,24,63,261,134,136,135],"class_list":["post-239619","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-staten-island","tag-crime","tag-local-politics","tag-new-york","tag-new-york-city","tag-nyc","tag-nyc-crime","tag-staten-island","tag-staten-island-headlines","tag-staten-island-news"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/239619","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=239619"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/239619\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/239620"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=239619"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=239619"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=239619"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}