If you poach, you pay.
The NYPD began sending bills to a handful of New York state municipalities that hired three city cops who recently graduated from the academy, the Daily News has learned.
The cops all resigned from the NYPD just months after their December graduation to take jobs as officers in counties outside the city, officials said.
But a state law, which passed quietly last year, requires state municipalities to cough up training costs if they poach a cop from another agency within three years of that officer’s graduation.
“They would have normally paid this sum to another entity that did the training for them,” said Paul Browne, top spokesman for the NYPD.
Browne said the Police Department has sent letters to three agencies seeking more than $150,000.
The cases include:
l $52,998.45 for a 25-year-old cop who resigned from the NYPD on March 5 to take a job with the Clarkson Police Department in Rockland County.
l $51,770.97 for a 24-year-old cop who resigned on March 28 for a job with the Pelham Fire Department in Westchester County.
l $50,471.28 for a 33-year-old cop who left the NYPD on April 22 to join the New York State Police.
Two of the officers live in the counties where they now serve.
The sums are based on the total training costs and salaries paid since they went into the Police Academy in July 2011.
Browne said that there could be more bills to follow.
The state law, section 72-c of General Municipal Law, was originally drafted to allow only those municipalities that have a population of 10,000 or less to seek costs for training if an officer went to another state agency.
However, a bill signed by Gov. Cuomo eliminated the population cap and went into effect in June 2011.
Officials said that none of the three departments billed by the NYPD had immediately protested the charges.
jkemp@nydailynews.com