NYPD Chief of Department John Chell told Newsmax that crime caused by repeat offenders in New York City is already a concern, but if Democrat mayoral candidate Zohran Mamdani wins in November and defunds the police force, the city “is going to have issues.”
“Our staffing is already down tremendously, and we got to fund our police officers,” Chell said on “Wake Up America” on Monday. “We have to pay them, we have to make sure the quality of life in their precincts are proper. We cannot go backwards. We really can’t. We’ve worked so hard post 2020 to get to a little light, if you will, to turn this thing around, to go backwards is not an option.
“If you don’t fund us, then people aren’t going to join the police department,” he said. “If you don’t give them a good contract, people are not going to join, and we’re going to have issues. But, at the end of the day, the cops in New York City, like everywhere else, took an oath. We will do our job to the best of our ability. We just need the tools to do it to keep the city safe.”
Discussing a recent case in Queens, in which a repeat offender was charged with allegedly torturing and murdering an elderly couple and then setting their home on fire, Chell said that the NYPD knows “who most of the bad guys are.”
“The problem we spoke about for years now is repeat offenders and consequences for those people,” he said. “In terms of this brutal murder in Queens last Monday, this person just got jailed for doing 16 years for robbery and sexual assault and was also on parole last Monday. So we know where they are, we know how to apprehend them — we just need to keep them in jail.”
“And we’re talking about a small minority. We’re not talking about everybody here. We all know the repeat offenders that affect crime in New York City and nationwide,” Chell added.
Asked how officers feel when they make an arrest and they see the suspect back out on the streets a couple of shifts later, Chell said it’s a “terribly frustrating” situation.
“When we talk about repeat offenders, the crimes they commit, we often talk numbers, but these are people, these are victims,” he said. “These are our families. So when the cops do a good job in making a good arrest for a really bad person, they don’t want to see him on the street the next day. They figure, ‘What’s the point here?’ But we’re professionals, and we’ll keep doing it until someone fixes the issue.”
GET TODAY :
is the fastest-growing cable news channel in America with more than 30 million people watching!
Reuters Institute reports is one of the top news brands in the U.S.
You need to watch today.
Get it with great shows from Rob Schmitt, Greta Van Susteren, Greg Kelly, Carl Higbie, Rob Finnerty – and many more!
Find the channel on your cable system –
Sign up for and get , our streaming channel and our military channel World at War.
Find hundreds of shows, movies and specials.
Even get Jon Voight’s special series and President Trump’s comedy programs and much more!
Watch on your smartphone or home TV app.
Watch anytime, anywhere!
Start your now:
© 2025 Newsmax. All rights reserved.
