![]() ![]() The bureau’s 2019 rate of crimes solved is 49%, a modest increase from 44% in 2015.īrandi Fisher, president and CEO of the Alliance for Police Accountability and member of the newly announced city Community Task Force on Police Reform, said the increase in the police budget indicates that the city is over-reliant on arresting and incarcerating people instead of creating community-based solutions. ![]() “When the City left Act 47 the and other unions were able to bargain for salary upgrades, which they received,” McNulty wrote in an email to PublicSource. Leaving Act 47, a financially distressed designation for cities, in 2018 led to an increase in personnel costs. The city also shifted benefits and legacy workers’ compensation from the Human Resources budget to the police bureau budget. Most recently, City Council in November approved a $10.9 million contract that includes body cameras and TASERS. The city recently purchased and implemented new police body cameras and established two new substations in Northview Heights and Downtown. And it costs.”Īccording to city spokesperson Tim McNulty, there are several reasons for the police budget’s increase. And that kind of policing looks like it’s unaccountable to anyone. “We’re not merely paying for uniforms and hardware… we’re paying for the kind of policing we’re now seeing on our TV screens, on our phones, on our laptops, over and over. She said settlements for civil lawsuits against the police can cost cities hundreds of thousands of dollars. Lenese Herbert, a professor at Howard University School of Law, noted that not all police-related costs are included in the police budget. Larry Likar, professor and chair of La Roche University’s Department of Justice, Law, and Security, said cities like Pittsburgh often have large police budgets for several reasons: the need to keep up with new technology, like body cameras the “unpredictable” nature of policing in cities, which requires additional resources so that police are quickly able to respond to different types of incidents and expensive training. “Police departments tend to be fairly expensive propositions because they’re labor-intensive, and people cost money,” he said. Pittsburgh spends roughly $382 per capita annually on policing. ![]() We broke down some key statistics on Pittsburgh’s police budget, compared it to other cities and questioned experts on the challenges and potential of shifting resources.Īccording to Dennis Kenney, a professor at John Jay College of Criminal Justice who specializes in policing, Pittsburgh’s police budget is “on the light side.” He said most cities of a comparable size allocate 25% to 30% of their budgets to police. Public officials in at least 16 cities, including Minneapolis, New York and Los Angeles, have begun taking steps to reduce police resources. Supporters argue that defunding the police isn’t as radical as it may sound because as money is reallocated, so are responsibilities. Many calling for reforms say it does not mean scrapping police departments entirely - though some activists have called for abolishing the police altogether because they don’t believe reform will work. What does “defund the police” mean? Is it viable? And what does Pittsburgh’s police budget currently look like?ĭefunding would involve reimagining public safety by taking money from police budgets and diverting into other services like violence prevention programs, social work and mental health services that may reduce crime. In the wake of George Floyd’s death by a police officer in Minneapolis and other cases of police brutality, activists and Democratic lawmakers across the country are calling for the “defunding” of police departments. ![]()
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