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NYPD cops’ transfers to Orange County no longer accepted due to lower standards: ‘Should be embarrassed’

By
Larry Celona,
Amanda Woods and
Jorge Fitz-Gibbon
Published June 3, 2025, 4:26 p.m. ET

New York’s Finest isn’t fine enough for one upstate county.

Officials in Orange County are snubbing the NYPD, saying they won’t take on any cops who want to transfer out of the nation’s largest and best-trained police force — because the department’s reduced recruitment standards aren’t up to snuff for them.

“This memo is to advise that the New York City Police Department has changed their minimum qualifications,” an internal Orange County human resources memo obtained by The Post said.

“As such, NYS Civil Service has confirmed for us that we are no longer permitted to allow the Sheriff’s Office or Orange County’s Town/Village Police Department to accept transfers from the New York City Police Department,” the May 19 memo to the county’s top cops and police union said.

NYPD promotion ceremony with Police Commissioner Jessica Tisch.
NYPD Commissioner Jessica Tisch lowered the recruitment standards, which bars cops from transferring out. Paul Martinka
NYPD emblem painted on a brick wall.
NYPD cops have often sought quieter and higher paying jobs outside of the five boroughs — until now. Matthew McDermott

At issue is a change in the NYPD’s admission standards in February, an attempt by Police Commissioner Jessica Tisch to fill the dwindling ranks of New York’s Finest.

The changes called for the department to reduce the minimum number of college credits required to enter the police academy to 24 instead of the current 60.

But state civil service law dictates that cops can’t transfer to a new law enforcement gig if it calls for “essential tests or qualifications different from or higher than those required” at their current job.

NYPD Commissioner Jessica Tisch.
NYPD Commissioner Jessica Tisch lowered college credit requirements to beef up the department’s shrinking ranks. Luiz C. Ribeiro for New York Post

That means any department — not just the Orange County Sheriff’s Office — that now has higher standards can no longer take in NYPD transfers.

“This shows how the standards of the NYPD have deteriorated,” retired Sgt. Mike Bosak told The Post. “We used to set the standard for the entire country. The department should be embarrassed.”

Under the state statute, an NYPD cop looking for greener pastures will have to start from scratch at the new department’s police academy, officials and law enforcement sources confirmed.

That puts a damper on a common career move for city cops who have long traded in their gigs in the five boroughs for quieter and better paying police jobs in the suburbs and upstate communities.

NYPD graduation ceremony at Madison Square Garden.
City officials have set a target of 35,000 NYPD cops by next year after years of dwindling ranks on the force. Stephen Yang

Traditional department-to-department transfers allow smaller police forces to take on veteran big city cops who are already trained and good to take to the streets.

That can’t happen now if the new department has higher requirements — which many do.

NYPD officers wanting in to Orange County have to take the civil service exam to be put on a hiring list for county law enforcement agencies, Human Resources Commissioner Langdon Chapman said.

Applicants have to be 35 to take the exam, but that number is due to rise to 42 later this year.

NYPD officer at a crime scene.
NYPD transfers allowed other police departments to benefit from seasoned and well-trained cops joining their ranks. Christopher Sadowski

Chapman said new NYPD hires would require to go through training before donning the new uniform, but it is unclear if they would be require to undergo full police academy training.

Orange County officials said they’re pushing state lawmakers to tweak the law to allow NYPD cops hired under the earlier, stricter standards to transfer to a new department.

“NYPD Officers are still welcome to take the Orange County test and then become a police officer here in Orange County,” Chapman said.

“Our residents have respect for law enforcement and Orange County is a great place to work,” Chapman said. “We also encourage State Lawmakers to amend the Civil Service to address anyone hired by NYPD under their old standards to enable them to still transfer.”

NYPD brass said the department, one of the last major police forces in the country to have college credit requirements, was forced to disqualify 29%, or 2,275 applicants, in 2023 alone due to the previous standard.

The new rules also gave police recruits more credits for completing the six-month academy training regimen based on a recent assessment by the National College Credit Recommendations Service that determined that completing the rigorous training is equivalent to 45 credits, up from the current 36.

Tisch did reinstate a longstanding timed-run requirement that was axed in 2023 by controversial then-Chief of Training Juanita Holmes, which requires cops and academy recruits to complete a 1.5-mile run in under 14 minutes and 21 seconds.

According to state civil service guidelines, local jurisdictions set their own educational qualifications for new police officers and sheriff’s deputies, and determine the training requirements for new cops.

Since Oct. 16, 2021, all law enforcement officers in the state other than members of the NYPD are required to complete the state’s NYPD Basic Conversion Course within one year of being hired.

The NYPD declined to comment.