President Donald Trump’s creation of the Department of Government Efficiency (DOGE) could curtail overeager lawmakers from police department oversight and “take the handcuffs off” officers, a former New York Police Department lieutenant commander said.

Joe Cardinale, now retired from the NYPD, told Fox News Digital DOGE’s scrutiny of the federal budget, which includes grants for police departments through the Department of Justice, could be a welcome relief for law enforcement agencies weighed down by lawmakers’ heavy oversight.

“Maybe we can give it a one-two punch,” he said. “Maybe we can start setting the standards a little better to allow better candidates to come in and take the handcuffs off the police.”

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DOGE, tasked with identifying wasteful government spending and making cuts, could highlight grants available to law enforcement agencies and any strings the money could come with.

“We need to get back to policing that says, ‘We’ll have your back 100% as long as you do the job properly. And if you step out of line, we’re going to hold you accountable,'” Cardinale said. 

Cardinale pointed to the removal of qualified indemnification for police officers as one example of how police forces are being “handcuffed.” 

In 2021, during the Black Lives Matter protests and riots, the New York City Council passed a series of reforms ending qualified immunity for officers, which protected them against lawsuits.

“They took it away,” he said. “The city at once said, ‘You do the job, and we will back you up.’ Now, they don’t have that any longer.”

Police officers stand in line outside St. Patrick’s Cathedral to pay their respects during the wake of New York City Police Officer Jason Rivera Jan. 27, 2022, in New York.  (AP Photo/Mary Altaffer)

Staffing and retention concerns have plagued police forces across the U.S. 

Cardinale said additional scrutiny of police departments could return police forces to law enforcement’s “basic premise to serve and protect” their communities. 

“Take the handcuffs off, and get back to some proactive policing.”

— Joe Cardinale, a retired lieutenant commander for the NYPD

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“I think there has to be strict accountability for the money that’s given to a police department and where it goes because the police departments have to be held to standards as well,” he said. 

That scrutiny and accountability, he posited, could block city councils’ “stymieing” of departments.

In 2024, The Associated Press reported that police hiring ticked upward in 2023 for the first time in five years, citing a survey from PERF, a nonprofit policing think tank based in Washington, D.C.

Those gains came mainly in small- and medium-sized departments. Big cities were still below staffing levels they maintained prior to the 2020 “defund the police” riots.

Police line the street in front of First Unitarian Church Sept. 25, 2020, after golf balls were thrown from a nearby residential building in downtown Louisville. (Max Gersh/USA Today Network)

Funding Usage

Cardinale said additional funding could be used to combat staffing shortages, raise police salaries and update equipment.

The Los Angeles Police Protective League, a police union representing over 8,000 Los Angeles Police Department officers, advocated for “common sense” ways to improve public safety.

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“If these funds are redirected to public safety, they will pay dividends in the form of safer neighborhoods and fewer fentanyl deaths,” the league told Fox News Digital. “We believe this is a wise investment. “

Fox News Digital has reached out to DOGE for comment.