{"id":1017913,"date":"2026-08-22T22:33:30","date_gmt":"2026-08-22T22:33:30","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/1017913\/"},"modified":"2026-08-22T22:33:30","modified_gmt":"2026-08-22T22:33:30","slug":"john-chell-wants-to-make-nypd-highest-paid-department-in-nation","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/1017913\/","title":{"rendered":"John Chell wants to make NYPD highest paid department in nation"},"content":{"rendered":"

Retired NYPD Chief of Department John Chell, who was the highest ranking uniformed officer at the department until his retirement last year, promises cops will hit the jackpot if he\u2019s elected mayor in 2029.<\/p>\n

\u201cI would make this department the highest paid in the nation,\u201d the longshot candidate, who\u2019s running as an Independent, told The Post on Thursday.\u00a0<\/p>\n

Retired NYPD Chief of Department John Chell, a 30-year veteran of the Force, is vowing to give cops raises. Aristide Economopoulos<\/p>\n

Chell, 57, announced he was running for mayor in a video on X in April<\/a>.<\/p>\n

Public safety is at the top of his agenda and he vows to raise the total number of police officers<\/a> in the NYPD closer to 40,000. The number is hovering around 35,000 right now.<\/p>\n

Chell, who grew up in Brooklyn and lives in Staten Island today, also wants to make the department\u2019s training tougher to ensure officers can handle the job \u2014 including physically testing those at higher ranks, he said.<\/p>\n

\u201cSo look, every rank should be in shape,\u201d said the tough-talking 30-year veteran of the Force, who retired last year<\/a>. \u201cLike every two years, you should be able to run X amount of distance in X amount of time based on your age.\u201d<\/p>\n

Chell also wants to make sure police officers stay physically fit enough to do the job, he said. Stephen Yang<\/p>\n

But he\u2019s running for mayor to handle more than just public safety, he said.<\/p>\n

He\u2019s against socialist Mayor Zohran Mamdani\u2019s pied-a-terre tax, which Chell said is just the mayor\u2019s way of pandering to his base. He also wants to cut waste <\/a>from city government and fix a slew of problems in the city\u2019s crumbling public housing.<\/p>\n

Even though he\u2019s known as a tough guy, there\u2019s a side of him the public doesn\u2019t know, Chell said.<\/p>\n

Chell was the highest uniformed police officer at the NYPD until his retirement last year. Stephen Yang for the NY Post<\/p>\n

\u201cNobody knew the community side of me,\u201d he said, explaining that he held Easter Egg hunts, coloring book contests and other activities for children when he led Brooklyn\u2019s 75th and 79th precincts.<\/p>\n

\u00a0\u201cNo one saw it,\u201d he said. \u201cNo one ever writes about it.\u201d<\/p>\n

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When asked about his chances, Chell pointed out that Mamdani came from behind to win and he could, too.<\/p>\n

\u201cI\u2019m gonna be that wild card,\u201d he said. \u201cI\u2019m not going to subscribe to the cultural norms of any party that tells me I have to act a certain way. I\u2019m part of this village.\u201d<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Retired NYPD Chief of Department John Chell, who was the highest ranking uniformed officer at the department until…\n","protected":false},"author":3,"featured_media":1017914,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":"","_share_on_mastodon":"0"},"categories":[5122],"tags":[5229,1121,90,5248,405,403,5226,5225,5228,5227,5372,5257,9294,67,586,132,5230,68,1154,2969,5301],"class_list":["post-1017913","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-new-york","tag-america","tag-brooklyn","tag-elections","tag-metro","tag-new-york","tag-new-york-city","tag-newyork","tag-newyorkcity","tag-ny","tag-nyc","tag-nyc-mayoral-election","tag-nypd","tag-staten-island","tag-united-states","tag-united-states-of-america","tag-unitedstates","tag-unitedstatesofamerica","tag-us","tag-us-news","tag-usa","tag-zohran-mamdani"],"share_on_mastodon":{"url":"https:\/\/pubeurope.com\/@us\/117141543896548464","error":""},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1017913","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/3"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=1017913"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1017913\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/1017914"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=1017913"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=1017913"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=1017913"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}