Cops who stopped Grand Central Station stabber were working OT via program Mamdani is gutting

The NYPD detectives who stopped a lunatic who attacked three people at Grand Central Terminal with a machete on Saturday were working overtime as a part of a crime-fighting initiative that’s been cut back in recent months, The Post has learned.

“Overtime has been getting cut back for the last year and a half,” said a longtime police officer who asked to remain anonymous.

“Since you’re cutting overtime, the crime isn’t going to go anywhere.”

“They’re minimum manning a lot of these subway stations because there’s a certain [overtime] cap that they don’t want you to go over,” the source said.

“If you go over that cap, [NYPD honchos] will bury the commanding officer. … If you go two hours over, [they] take your head off. This is what you have. You have crime and violence.”

The NYPD began cracking down on overtime under ex-Mayor Eric Adams, seeing a $1.1 billion drop-off last fiscal year compared to fiscal 2024.

Cuts have gotten deeper under soft-on-crime Mayor Zohran Mamdani, who campaigned on eliminating the NYPD’s OT budget.

Cops who worked extra shifts on the subway were especially hard hit by the budget reductions.

New rules that went into effect on Jan. 1 slashed the number of subway overtime hours cops can work in half, The Post then reported.

Detectives are now limited to 40 hours of total OT a month and “no more than two transit details,” one longtime cop said.

Officers were previously allowed four or six of the 7.5-hour underground shifts per month, the cop said.

Police are concerned that thousands of veteran NYPD bosses and gumshoes will flee if Mamdani continues to cut overtime, which would significantly reduce their pensions.

However, the NYPD has been told cops should expect more OT opportunities during the World Cup this summer, a source said.

The Mayor’s Office did not return messages.