The NYPD has spent $53 million on overtime pay to respond to thousands of protests across New York City since the Hamas attacks against Israel on Oct. 7, police officials said on Thursday.
The amount is part of a larger, $168 million expenditure for unplanned police overtime since last July, including for protests, subways and migrant shelters, according to the officials.
In testimony at a City Council budget hearing just days after the NYPD cracked down on pro-Palestinian protesters at the Fashion Institute of Technology in Chelsea, police officials said officers have racked up hundreds of thousands of overtime hours responding to war-related protests. The NYPD spent roughly $5 million on overtime pay to respond to protests between April 21 and May 7 alone, the officials told councilmembers.
The NYPD has cleared multiple protest encampments at school campuses around the city at the schools’ requests over the past few weeks, most prominently in a large-scale operation at Columbia University on April 30.
When councilmembers asked top police officials including Commissioner Edward Caban whether the schools would reimburse the city for the costs of paying police overtime, NYPD Deputy Commissioner of Legal Matters Michael Gerber said it was something the department was “exploring.”
Police officials at the hearing defended the use of officer overtime, saying it was necessary to address the campus protests. Mayor Eric Adams has also defended the NYPD’s response to the demonstrations over the Israel-Hamas war.
On Columbia’s campus last week, as NYPD officers cleared protesters who had occupied the Hamilton Hall building, one officer fired a gun, according to law enforcement officials. A police spokesperson said the officer used the flashlight on his gun to illuminate a path and accidentally fired a shot that struck a wall a few feet away. The NYPD said no one was injured in the incident.
People have filed misconduct complaints against about 40 police officers in connection with protests over the last seven months, the city’s police oversight agency said on Wednesday.
This is a developing story and may be updated.