Community Groups Criticize Mayor Adams’ City Budget and Call on Council Members to vote NO

NEW YORK, NY - Following the budget handshake today, Communities United for Police Reform (CPR) and NYC Budget Justice campaign criticized Mayor Adams’ FY24 New York City budget for failing to protect New York's most vulnerable communities and pumping money into an already bloated NYPD budget. CPR released the following statement from spokesperson Ileana Mendez-Penate (she/her).

“Our communities are in crisis and deserve care not criminalization. But in the city budget, Mayor Adams ignores the real crises that are happening in our city, and instead prioritizes policing and criminalization by increasing the NYPD’s budget by more than $1 billion. The City Council must stand with New Yorkers and vote NO on the FY24 budget.

“The cruel and dangerous budget supports violent policing, including specialized units such as  the Strategic Response Group (SRG), VICE, and the Neighborhood Safety Teams (NST). The budget also continues to prioritize school police over the needs of students, and fails to protect and invest in critical social services that provide real community safety for New Yorkers, especially in the areas of mental health, housing, and education. 

“The mayor claims that the city is broke, but he is increasing the NYPD budget to a record high of more than $12 billion in spending. Mayor Adams has repeatedly failed to rein in NYPD overspending in overtime and remove NYPD from social service roles.  The mayor cannot continue to funnel money into the NYPD’s bloated budget as he makes significant and harmful cuts to services supporting homelessness, housing assistance, reentry, food assistance, mental health and education programs.This is especially harmful to New Yorkers who are Black, Latinx, immigrants, LGBTQIA+ and other people of color living in communities that are over-policed and under-resourced. The City Council must reject this inhumane and short-sighted budget.”  

This year, CPR’s Budget Justice Campaign released a new FY24 platform called A New York City Budget for Safety & Dignity that calls for cuts to the NYPD's bloated $12B budget and overreach and demands bold investments in housing, mental health, education, youth services and other public infrastructure that will actually increase the immediate and long-term safety of all New Yorkers. The city is facing serious problems that will not be addressed with increased policing. 

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About Communities United for Police Reform

Communities United for Police Reform (CPR) is an unprecedented campaign to end discriminatory policing practices in New York, and to build a lasting movement that promotes public safety and reduces reliance on policing. CPR runs coalitions of over 200 local, statewide and national organizations, bringing together a movement of community members, lawyers, researchers and activists to work for change. The partners in this campaign come from all 5 boroughs, from all walks of life and represent many of those most unfairly targeted by the NYPD.