NYC Budget Justice

We Demand a #NYCBudgetJustice!

Since the national uprisings of 2020 fueled by the police killing of George Floyd, Communities United for Police Reform has led a historic coalition of local and national organizations united to demand #NYCBudgetJustice – a call for real public safety through investment in infrastructure and community safety solutions and reducing the reliance on police and criminalization.

Mayor Eric Adams FY25 Executive Budget is not a financial plan that will increase real health and safety for New Yorkers in the upcoming year. The FY25 Budget includes significant staffing and budget cuts to crucial agencies, services, and infrastructure – cuts that undermine the foundation of safe and thriving cities. At the same time, Mayor Eric Adams has virtually fully restored the staffing and budget of the NYPD[a] and the FY25 Executive Budget includes $11.9 billion dollars in police spending.[b] We are especially concerned that increases to the size and scope of the NYPD are being proposed at a time when NYPD overspending, misconduct, and secrecy is at an all-time high. We can’t continue to reward the NYPD by expanding police spending while gutting key NYC programs that create the ecosystem of non-police safety infrastructure for our communities.

We are demanding that the following changes be incorporated into the FY25 Adopted Budget so that New Yorkers can have access to the services and support they need and  the NYPD is held accountable for their record of violence, misinformation, overspending, and their refusal to fire officers who unjustly kill, brutalize, and violate the rights of New Yorkers. Areas that should be considered for cuts in the NYPD budget to make monies available for other agencies include:  

1. Cut the NYPD’s press/communications budget by at least 50%, including Deputy Commissioner of Public Information and other NYPD press/communications infrastructure and programs. Public resources should not be used to spread misinformation, and the millions of dollars being spent by the NYPD public relations spin team should be cut and re-invested to close critical gaps. When accounting for full cost of staffing of DCPI, social media management and other contracts, we estimate that the full cost of NYPD press and communications is well over $10 million dollars.[i]
    
2. Remove NYPD from mental health response. New Yorkers need mental health care, not increased criminalization. NYPD Co-Response Teams should be eliminated, and this money should be moved into crisis response teams that do not include police officers and community-based mental health services and programs that can provide mental health crisis prevention, response and post-crisis services. We estimate that the NYPD Uniform costs of NYPD Mental Health Co-Response teams is approximately $5.6 million dollars.[ii]
    
3. Freeze hiring of school police and cut funding for remaining vacant school positions. Mayor Eric Adams is proposing hiring 574 school police officers next year in the FY25 Executive Budget.[iii] It was also recently announced that an additional 400 school police positions[iv] are being proposed for the FY25 Adopted budget, meaning close to 1000 new school police officers in schools next year.  The city should be taking the opposite approach, cutting school cop vacancies, freezing hiring, and moving at least $98 million dollars[v] to close needed gaps in services and support for students. Students need restorative justice, mental health, other non-police schools’ staff and practices that help students learn and thrive, not cops. 
    
4. Disband the Strategic Response Group (SRG) Adams is proposing an increase in funding next year for this notoriously abusive unit[vi].  The SRG should be disbanded, and their hyper-aggressive escalating tactics should be eliminated. Militarized forces that target protesters for exercising their first amendment rights do not belong in our communities or in our streets, we must disband the SRG and reinvest $145 million[vii] to serve, not harm New Yorkers. 
    
5. Block attempts to add 1,200 additional officers in FY25[viii], and instead invest those monies to fund help keep jobs in schools, mental health programs, libraries, composting, and non-police anti-violence programs. The NYPD should not be allowed to add an additional 1,200 new recruits in FY25 while staffing from other critical agencies and programs are being cut. These officers would add $62 million dollars to the NYPD expense budget and at least an additional $62[ix] million in fringe and pension costs for FY2 for a total of $124 million dollars that can be reinvested.

6. Stop the Creation of Cop City NYC! Reject Mayor Eric Adams plan to spend $225 million on a mega-police training facility in Queens. This capital project will consolidate training for the NYPD and 17 other city agencies that have enforcement arms. Adams' Cop City project will increase the influence and power of the NYPD and mold the enforcement arms of other city agencies to more closely follow NYPD protocols and practices. This is a dangerous expansion of policing and enforcement and will result in increased criminalization of New Yorkers. 

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