@lauren_marietta posted a series of plots on the Boston Police Department last week. I wanted to look at what the @BaltimorePolice looks in the same terms. Boston and Baltimore are similar size cities. Thread. #DefundPolice @BaltCityHall @BaltimoreMayor
At $536 million, BPD is the second largest budget item, right after Public Works. 1.9x the @BaltCitySchools budget, 3.35x the Health budget, 6x the Housing and Community Development budget and 60x the Arts and Culture expenditure. 
In 2020, the Police budget got a $26 mil boost, the largest increase of any budget line. If the @BaltCitySchools budget got a $26 mil bump, that would've been a 9.3% increase. Instead, school budget stayed flat (at the bottom), not even accounting for the 1.8% inflation.
What does the Baltimore Police spend its money on? Patrol: 38%, IT: 18%, Recruitment and Training: 4%.
Just for comparison, the programs targeted at youth in Baltimore City:
Youth Works Summer Jobs: $9.5 million
Out of School Youth: $4.3 million
WIOA Funded Youth: $2.6 million
Youth Violence Prevention: $2.4 million
Youth and Adult Sports: 961K
Alternative Options Academy: 204K
Youth Works Summer Jobs: $9.5 million
Out of School Youth: $4.3 million
WIOA Funded Youth: $2.6 million
Youth Violence Prevention: $2.4 million
Youth and Adult Sports: 961K
Alternative Options Academy: 204K
Just for comparison, ALL programs targeted at youth in Baltimore City:
Summer Jobs Program: $9.5 million
Out of School Youth: $4.3 million
WIOA Funded Youth: $2.6 million
Youth Violence Prevention: $2.4 million
Youth and Adult Sports: 961K
Alternative Options Academy: 204K
Summer Jobs Program: $9.5 million
Out of School Youth: $4.3 million
WIOA Funded Youth: $2.6 million
Youth Violence Prevention: $2.4 million
Youth and Adult Sports: 961K
Alternative Options Academy: 204K
In 2020 the city allocated an additional 9 million dollars to Recruitment and Training, a 65% increase, and $70 million less to police patrol, a 37% decrease.
Let’s look at the salaries. The median non-police city employee makes $51K. The median police employee makes almost twice as much: $93K! This is not just due to overtime (see below), the base salaries of police officers are just higher.
Notably, 528 police employees, 17.6% of all police employees, make more than the @BaltimoreMayor! Only 1.8% on non-police employees make more than the mayor.
Who are these highly-paid folks? Thank you, public records! Top of the list is Sgt. Ethan Newberg, now suspended for 32 counts of harassing citizens over a 10-month period in 2018-2019: baltimore.cbslocal.com/2019/12/12/bal…
In 2019, Baltimore paid $43 million dollars in overtime! In case this isn’t clear from the plot, all of these top-20 highest paid officers are working 60-80 hours per week EVERY. WEEK. OF. THE. YEAR.
All of this is based on public data. If anyone wants the receipts, here they are: github.com/ivastar/baltim…
