Seattle spars over budget cuts amid last gasps of ‘defund the police’

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Seattle leaders are battling over a dramatic proposed cut to the city’s police department as residents face rising crime and other cities reverse the cuts they imposed on law enforcement in the wake of activist demands last year.

Seattle City Council members proposed roughly $10 million in cuts to the police department last week. This comes after Mayor Jenny Durkan floated a budget in late September that would have added money to hire more officers and fund hiring incentives to recruit more.

Facing many of the same headwinds other metropolitan police departments have confronted over the past year, Seattle has lost more than 300 officers in recent months.

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The staffing shortages have led to severe delays in response times to 911 calls, with some lasting longer than an hour for certain kinds of crimes.

Crime in Seattle has climbed steadily as the city has seen an exodus of law enforcement officers. Police leaders in late August reported a 40% increase in 911 calls for shots fired compared to the same time last year, as well as 150 more shootings so far in 2021 than in 2019.

Other cities have reversed course on politically charged efforts to slash police budgets in the wake of 2020’s race-related protests.

For example, Los Angeles cut $150 million from its law enforcement budget last year under pressure from activists demanding police reform, only to add the money back in April amid rising crime.

Minneapolis, the site of George Floyd’s murder at the hands of a white police officer last year, cut $8 million from its budget after Floyd’s death sparked nationwide protests with demands to defund police nationwide.

However, Democratic Mayor Jacob Frey released a budget proposal this fall that would add funding to the city’s police force to address staffing shortages.

Activists managed to secure a ballot question in November that asked voters if they wanted to abolish the police department altogether and replace it with a new Department of Public Safety. The proposal was soundly defeated.

The battle over funding in Seattle reflects a broader struggle in some cities as the “defund the police” movement loses steam in its collision with the reality of spiking crime and collapsing public support.

The Seattle City Council’s proposal justifies $2.7 million of the cut by noting the police department hasn’t recently met hiring targets and will likely lose as many officers as it is projected to recruit in 2022. That portion of the cut would come from money set aside for officer salaries.

Another $4.5 million would come from the police department’s general fund by imposing “service efficiencies” on the department, such as reducing the number of officers sent to patrol events, forcing officers to attend training sessions online rather than in person, and “extending the lifespan of office furniture,” according to the budget proposal.

A $1.3 million cut would come from slashing six full-time police positions and using the money to create a “Community Service Officers” squad that would “neither carry weapons nor enforce criminal laws.” Instead, it would provide other forms of community service.

A $1.1 million cut would slash funding for hiring incentives, despite the police department’s already pronounced staffing shortage.

The final cuts would come from planned technology projects the police department had been slated to pursue.

Durkan signed an emergency order in late October that funded eye-popping hiring incentives for new police officers, including $25,000 signing bonuses for experienced police officers and 911 dispatchers and $10,000 signing bonuses for other new law enforcement hires.

The move was meant to shuffle funds within the 2021 budget to accommodate the bonuses, which the city council is now proposing to limit with its police department cuts.

Durkan, who opted not to run for reelection this year, has criticized the city council’s proposed cuts, as has Mayor-elect Bruce Harrell.

Earlier this month, Harrell defeated a more progressive candidate, City Council President Lorena Gonzalez, in part by attacking Gonzalez on her past support for defunding the police and his promises not to do so.

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Harrell slammed the suggested cuts shortly after their release.

“The City Council needs to listen to voters’ desire for immediate investments in public safety and reverse the proposed $10 million cut to the SPD budget,” he said in a statement, noting the proposal is “in direct conflict with what Seattle voters demanded just last week.”

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