For Immediate Release

Policing & Social Justice Project Statement on NYPD Budget

May 15th, 2020 (New York) – At a time when New York City faces a major financial crisis and overall crime remains at historic lows, the City's proposed budget for the NYPD is misguided financially and as a matter of social policy. The Policing & Social Justice Project calls on the New York City Council to implement major reductions in spending on police in their proposed budget. 

The newly proposed $50 million dollars in cost-saving reductions – less than 1% of the overall budget – by the Council is simply not enough. The Project calls for a reduction of $200 million for the FY2021 budget, followed by an additional $200 million reduction every year for four years until the City has reduced the budget by at least one billion dollars by FY2025. 

These cuts can be achieved through a cancellation of new NYPD police officer classes, a subsequent freezing of all hiring and discretionary promotions and major reductions in overtime. These personnel-related costs, which include overtime spending that is projected to exceed $700 million dollars in 2020, can lead to at least $170 million in savings for FY2020. Additionally, the cancellation of upgrades to the department's Domain Awareness System ($15.6 million) and projected Body Worn Camera expenses ($18.8 million) represent an additional $34 million dollars in savings. Future budget cuts can similarly be formulated through reductions in personnel-related expenses, most notably by lowering the departments uniformed headcount by at least 1,000 positions through attrition. In 2015, the City committed hundreds of thousands of taxpayer dollars for the addition of 1,297 officers to the department headcount – an initiative that was spearheaded by the City Council.

The NYPD budget should be seen in the context of historic growth during the administration of Mayor Bill de Blasio and the stewardship of the Council. Under the Mayor and the Council, the City has expanded the police department budget from $4.6 billion in 2014 to $5.6 billion in 2019. During that same span, overtime spending within the police department increased by over $100 million dollars annually from $485 million to $623 million amid historic lows in crime. 

The reduction of the NYPD budget by at least a billion dollars annually would, in fact, simply reduce City's spending on police to 2014 levels when crime was at then record lows.  These sizable reductions would reduce the fiscal burden on the City so it can prioritize other social services, like youth programming and public health initiatives, that will be crucial as the New Yorkers recover from COVID-19. More importantly, the historic over-policing of communities of color, seen most recently in the disparate social distancing enforcement patterns of the department, demands that lawmakers act decisively to change our city's priorities.

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