Sacramento Sets Record-High Police Budget Amid Calls To Defund

SACRAMENTO, CA — Calls for "defunding" police in America have ramped up in the year since the death of George Floyd in Minneapolis, with a number of major American cities taking steps to move certain responsibilities away from law enforcement.

Those cities include Sacramento, which plans to spend $5.8 million on a Department of Community Response that will, according to The Sacramento Bee, handle mental health issues and homelessness, among other calls that have traditionally been handled by police.

But the city is also increasing its police department budget, to a record high of nearly $166 million, in a proposal that still needs approval from the full City Council.

The yearly increase, about $9.4 million, includes money for five new police officers and 3.5 percent raises for those already serving. If approved, the new fiscal year budget will go into effect July 1.

Sacramento Mayor Darrell Steinberg proposed the community response unit, the Bee reported, as a way to redirect $10 million away from the police department over two years. Steinberg says he's "not for defunding," the report states.

“There are some things that are part of running a city, like collective bargaining and binding arbitration, and genuine needs for the police department,” Steinberg said.

The proposed increased police budget has been met with mixed reactions in Sacramento. City Councilwoman Katie Valenzuela told the Bee she plans to vote against it.

“To put more money into law enforcement when we’ve said as a city we want to move in another direction, it doesn’t line up,” she said.

Tim Davis, a spokesman for the Sacramento Police Officers Association, told KTXL he believes city residents want more traditional police services, "not less."

Sacramento isn't alone among cities increasing their police budgets since Floyd's death and amid growing calls to defund. At least 24 other large American cities have done so in 2021, according to an analysis from Bloomberg, while at least 18 others have decreased the money going to police departments.

Still, the leader of the city's committee to select where to spend its sales tax increase thinks it should go elsewhere.

“It’s a little disappointing still because we had hoped that it would go in a different direction,” Flojaune Cofer told KTXL.