Police want a share of pandemic relief funds. Activists say that it is unjust to use Covid-19 relief money to boost officer pay or to fund ordinary police functions when so many residents are struggling.
Police say they deserve some of the relief money because, just like many other municipal services, their spending was cut during the pandemic as cities struggled with lost revenue.
Andrea Edmiston, director of governmental affairs for the National Association of Police Organizations, said that while some cities, including New York and Los Angeles, cut police budgets under pressure from public outcry, many others saw their funding reduced because of financial shortfalls. A lot of these departments “stopped training classes and equipment purchases, had no cadet classes, and hiring and retention initiatives went out the window,” Edmiston said.
Standing in the way, or at least hoping to, are those who envision a new system of public safety that relies less on police and invests more resources in treating crime’s root causes: poverty, mental illness, substance abuse. A demonstrator at a July 30, 2020, protest in Albuquerque, N.M., where activists recently battled an increase in police funding.This movement to “defund the police,” which gained momentum after the police murder of George Floyd last year, has largely been focused on the municipal budget process, where most decisions about police spending are made.
The Biden administration has said the money should be used to help bring the pandemic under control, replace lost government revenue, support households and businesses, and address inequalities in public health and local economies. But the rules provide a lot of leeway, and cities are eyeing everything from vaccination outreach to arts grants.
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