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I was following a story out of New York recently that caused me to think about municipal budgets for the police. This is a complicated issue and can present tensions for abolitionists. More on tensions tomorrow, but first let’s take a look at the issue of police budgets. https://gothamist.com/news/nypd-officers-brag-about-milking-overtime-call-detainees-names-in-accidental-recording 1/8
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The story linked above details how a protestor was arrested inside a building. Rather than give him a desk appearance ticket, the police chose to take him down to the precinct for booking. Unbeknown to them while they were detaining the man, his phone was on and recorded several hours of the police talking among themselves. They were talking about creating overtime. 2/8
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Over the past few years police in numerous departments have been prosecuted for abusing overtime and leave policies. See departments in CA, Shreveport LA, Louisville, KY, Boston and in FL. During the recorded hours of conversation, numerous police officers talked about doing their work slowly to help them accrue overtime pay. The officer in question took an additional 5 hours to process the arrest than was required. 3/8
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How many of us know how much money our city, town or village pays to the police? The amount of money can be astounding. The NYC police budget is approx. $11BILLION dollars. That does not include grants they may receive from the Feds or the airport authorities. It is the 3rd largest agency in the city. If you deducted the mandatory costs of Medicaid it would be the 2nd 4/8
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The Chicago Police budget is 1.9 BILLION dollars and former Mayor Lori Lightfoot still managed to give them more. A recent report from Community Commission for Public Safety and Accountability found the CPD was not spending the money effectively or equitably. And get this.… “lacks a long-term, data-driven strategy to reduce violence.” No plan at all on guns. 5/8
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The budget for the Metropolitan Police Department in Washington DC was $545 MILLION dollars for a city with 700,000 residents. The council has consistently attempted to reduce the budget over the objections of Mayor Bowser and her consistent attempts to increase it. DC as well as Chicago used COVID relief money for the police (who in DC resisted wearing masks throughout the whole pandemic!) 6/8
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The NYC police budget does not include the $121 MILLION dollars the city paid out in settlements for lawsuits charging police misconduct. Chicago’s budget does not include the $250 million spent between 2017 and 2020 to resolve lawsuits against the police for improper use of force. DC paid $1.6 MILLION for just two lawsuits. Across the country BILLIONS are being paid in settlements. 7/8
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In all three of the cities “crime” is supposedly spiraling. In fact, it’s that gun violence is increasing to pre-pandemic levels. Every year the police get more and more money, but they don’t seem to be effective in crime control. And that’s probably because the police don’t prevent crime, they respond to it. Tomorrow I’ll mention how an individual person can participate in the police budgeting decision making. 8/8