National Exodus

It isn't just Chicago that's seeing a largish number of cops leaving - NYPD is a prime example:

• Is the Big Apple about to witness an exodus of cops from the force? That's what The New York Post is asking after reporting that nearly 600 of the city's boys in blue nearing retirement age have signed up for a pension seminar next week — four times the number who normally sign up by this point:
  

  The Tuesday event for members of the officers, sergeants and detectives unions will be held in Queens Village and feature retirement advice from Joe Maccone, former commanding officer of the NYPD’s pension section. The venue holds 700, and organizers fear they will be forced to turn some people away at the doors.
  
  The Patrolmen’s Benevolent Association said that typically about 150 cops RSVP in the week before the event, and the record number of reservations points to a looming exodus of veteran officers.
  
  The union blames the increased interest in the retirement seminar on job dissatisfaction, including low pay and low morale.
  
  The NYPD did have a spike in hiring from 1,593 to 2,418 between 1996 and 1997 — and cops can ­retire with full pensions after 20 years.
  
  But PBA officials said RSVPs had never before surged like this — even when the event fell 20 years after a similar peak in hiring.

And hiring is getting more and more difficult. No one staying and no one coming in? We sense much lawlessness in the near future.