NYPD Commissioner Jessica Tisch recently swore in the largest police class in nearly a decade, declaring that police recruitment is “back in a big way.”

That marks a significant change from six months ago, when she said the department was “begging” people just to take the police test. Police headcounts have been on the wane nationwide since the COVID-19 pandemic and the George Floyd protests, research shows. Tisch blamed the paucity of new recruits on the “vile” rhetoric that accompanied the “defund” movement.

Now, she says, that rhetoric has shifted.

“The years of indiscriminately bashing the police are behind us,” she told recruits at their swearing-in last week. “The rhetoric around public safety is changing.”

Critics say the increase can be attributed to a less lofty reality: The

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