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

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.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.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 Bozak 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 quiet...