The Los Angeles City Council on Wednesday approved a $150 million reduce to the LAPD’s budget for the next fiscal year, a move that followed activists’ mounting calls to “defund the police.”
The council voted 12-2 with Councilmen John Lee and Joe Buscaino voting in opposition to the decision.
This year’s budget process for Los Angeles is unlike any other because of the coronavirus pandemic, and on Wednesday the City Council voted on financial adjustments to a spending plan that is already in effect, as the fiscal year begins July 1.
Lee said it’s still important to acknowledge how far the LAPD has come in its reformation from decades ago. He said two-thirds of LAPD officers are people of color and that the department “has been a model” in its reforms.
Mayor Eric Garcetti said he does not support Black Lives Matter-LA’s proposal to cut the Los Angeles Police Department’s $1.8 billion operating budget by 90%.
“I’m not saying LAPD is a perfect organization,” Lee said. “There’s always room for improvement, but … other police departments throughout the nation strive to follow them on their community policing, use of force, deescalation and implicit bias training.”
The proposed operating budget of the LAPD was about $1.86 billion before the cut, which has been derided by the Los Angeles Police Protective League, the union that represents the department’s roughly 9,900 sworn officers.
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