another meaning of 'cut trees'

N.Y.P.D. needs to cut a few trees.

The speaker is a police officer and she did a lot of overtime to pay her depts. But NYPD didn't want her to do that and take a lot of money. So NYPD had a division officer say to her that she should stop doing overtime. And she said 'NYPD needs to cut a few trees' to a division officer.

My question is, what does 'cut a few tress' mean? I googled it, but it only says it means felling.

Maybe it means 'a curtailment in the budget'?

Solution 1:

I think the original speaker meant "NYPD needs to cut some deadwood from the ranks." It is a common business expression. To cut deadwood is to let go those employees who do not contribute enough.