Bowser Says Proposed Cuts To Her Police Spending Plan Are 'Not Sound Budgeting'

D.C. Mayor Muriel Bowser is criticizing the D.C. Council's proposed budget reductions to the Metropolitan Police Department, saying that they could lead to an increase in costs and should be examined by the city's chief financial officer.

Bowser wrote in a letter over the weekend that the D.C. Council's proposed budget, which it approved unanimously last week, is expected to result in a reduction of more than 250 police officers. That reduction, she claimed, would cause "a significant pressure on overtime." The council is scheduled to take additional votes on the budget and accompanying laws on Tuesday, July 21 and Tuesday, July 28.

D.C. Chief Financial Officer Jeffrey DeWitt must certify the city's budget as part of its approval process. Bowser wrote in her letter that she believed the overtime costs were an issue that could prevent DeWitt from signing off on the spending plan.

"It's one thing to say that you're going to reduce something," Bowser said in a press conference on Monday. "But if we discover eight months from now that it just caused an increase somewhere else — i.e. overtime — it's not sound budgeting."

In her budget proposal, Bowser increased MPD's budget by $18 million, or 3% over the previous year. The council's budget cut $9.6 million of the mayor's proposed increase. As it stands in the council's proposal, MPD will get $568 million dollars, or a 1.6% increase from last year's proposed budget. Ward 6 Council member Charles Allen, who chairs the committee that oversees MPD, has said this actually represents a decrease in police department funding because the mayor revised police spending upwards in the middle of this fiscal year.

The council's changes to the police budget followed an outpouring of testimony from residents and activists who wanted to see significant cuts to MPD's budget and reinvestment in other programs, including violence interruption programs and social services. The council's proposed budget takes the cuts from MPD and funnels them toward violence interruption programs, restorative justice initiatives and victims services work.

Activists who are pushing for greater cuts to policing and echoing calls from Black Lives Matter demonstrators across the country to "defund the police," said the council's proposal was an improvement from the mayor's original budget. But they say it does not go far enough to meet their goals.

"We saw the restoration of funding for violence interruption," Dominique Hazzard, an organizer with Black Youth Project 100, told DCist/WAMU last week. "We saw some funding put in for health support in our schools. But at the same time, you know, that's half of what we were asking for."

Activists with Black Lives Matter's D.C. chapter and other groups have repeatedly said that they want to see the city address violence by tackling its root causes, not through policing.

Allen told DCist/WAMU recently that he believed investments in violence interruption programs led by the Office of Neighborhood Safety and Engagement (ONSE) and the Office of the Attorney General could help alleviate gun violence.

"We know most violent crime is committed by a small percentage of vulnerable residents," Allen said. "If we can reach these folks and offer them a way out, we will prevent more senseless gun violence."

On the other hand, Bowser on Sunday raised concerns she has already brought up about the public safety consequences of reversing her proposed increases to police funding.

"I understand the Council's goal of responding to recent incidents involving excessive force by police officers in other jurisdictions and the national public sentiment regarding the need to reform police operations," Bowser wrote. "But changes to the MPD budget should be made in a more thoughtful and coordinated manner, and I am concerned that the Council's proposed cuts will make District residents less safe."

As part of its cuts, the council eliminated a $1.7 million increase to the police department's cadet program, a reduction Bowser's letter called "inexplicable." Bowser said the cadet program was an important tool for recruiting officers "of diverse racial backgrounds," who are "precisely the officers that we want in MPD to continue our focus on community policing."

In her letter, Bowser said she also had "significant concerns" with several other proposals from the D.C. Council, including tax changes that the Council agreed upon last week.

Bowser wrote that a proposed advertising tax was "ill-advised" because of its potential impact on local newspapers and Black-owned newspapers in particular — a concern that several councilmembers also raised during debate last week. She added that a proposed gas tax could disproportionately impact D.C. residents who have taken on rideshare and delivery gigs as new sources of income during the pandemic and resulting economic crisis. And Bowser opposed the council's decision to further cut a controversial tax credit for tech companies, saying that it would "negatively impact the District's ability to attract future businesses."

Councilmembers have argued for increasing revenues to bring more equity into the budget and to allocate additional resources for programs that target economically vulnerable residents hit hardest by the pandemic. (A majority of the council voted down last week a proposal to increase taxes modestly on wealthy residents.) The council used funds freed up from the tax changes to add money for a fund for undocumented workers, school-based mental health, affordable housing and rental assistance.

Bowser also questioned whether several spending increases proposed by the council, including some money set aside for the Cherry Blossom Festival and an arts project on New York Avenue, were advisable.

"Our fiscal outlook has not changed and the impacts of COVID-19 are still unfolding," Bowser wrote. "Many of the Council's proposed increases are offering District residents a false hope that the additional spending can be maintained."