Protests against police brutality and racism in the U.S. have sparked calls to defund police departments
Yet our analysis found that many of the largest cities are actually boosting police spending.
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More than half of the 34 cities studied increased spending or kept it unchanged as a percentage of their discretionary spending.
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Police expenditures have grown over the last decade and most of the big cities surveyed will allocate over a quarter of their general fund budget to them.
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A few major cities have trimmed police budgets in unprecedented ways as a result of protests. Some of these cuts include:
➡️$1 billion by NYC
➡️$150 million by Los Angeles
➡️$144.5M by Austin, TX
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Where is the money being reallocated?
➡️The city of Los Angeles promised to divert funds to Black communities
➡️Austin elected to redirect about $20 million to homeless services
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The full picture of budget decisions is more complex.
The coronavirus pandemic has forced council members to choose between political decisions and practical ones.
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While the complexity of policy decisions is exacerbated by the ongoing pandemic, community interest in city budget meetings has grown.
In Phoenix, planned cuts to an accountability office were reversed after protests against police brutality.
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Some of the loudest calls for budget cuts are still ongoing, as budgets remain in flux.
Several of the country’s largest cities have not yet approved final budgets; for others there’s next year.
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