“When we don’t fund parks … when we don’t fund our school programs greater than the police, we’re setting ourselves up for failure.” Texas FortWorthTX
more than half of the general fund to police and fire services. But, when asked about the report’s results, he said he thinks community services like after-school programs and gun violence prevention shouldn’t be overlooked in the quest to ramp up public safety.
Houston’s budget is similarly lopsided, with policing and courts eating up 4.8 times more of the city’s budget than community services. In 2022, the city spent $1 billion on what the study calls “mass criminalization,” compared with just $213 million on community care. Most of this money—about 80 percent of total spending in both categories—went to the Houston Police Department. The largest community care bucket, the Department of Parks and Recreation, got only 8 percent of the pie.
The study found that Austin and San Antonio come closer to parity, spending 1.2 times and 1.6 times as much on mass criminalization as services, respectively.
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