Walsh not looking to lay off Boston police as he mulls reallocating funds
Boston Mayor Martin Walsh said he is not looking to lay off cops even as he mulls reallocating funds within the city’s budget and advocates continue their calls to move police money toward social services.
Roughly 90% of the Boston Police Department’s $414 million budget — the second largest allocation in the city, behind the schools — is for personnel. But even as he faces a massive budget shortfall due to COVID-19, Walsh said, “I won’t be laying any public safety off.”
“We’re not laying off in the city, even with the potential $80 million in reductions,” Walsh said.
Walsh said conversations around “defunding the police” have shifted in recent days from slashing the budget to redirecting that money toward areas like mental health services and equity training.
“Just cutting the budget doesn’t solve anything,” Walsh said. “Cutting the budget doesn’t deal with racism. Cutting the budget doesn’t deal with systemic issues.”
The mayor met with police about their budget Wednesday afternoon, but his office did not provide an update afterward. He again declined to get into details about funding during a morning press conference, saying his administration was still reworking the budget.
Fatema Ahmad, executive director of the Muslim Justice League, said, “It’s interesting he’s meeting with BPD but has not yet reached out to any of us, the many community organizations who have some detailed thoughts about what can be done and have been turning up thousands of people to tell the City Council what to do.”
Protesters who marched toward City Hall in the afternoon called for a 10% reduction in funding for Boston’s police force — echoing similar demands this week from activists who want to see that money put toward public health, education and youth jobs as demonstrations against police brutality after the death of Minneapolis black man George Floyd continued for another day.
Walsh said Floyd’s killing “puts a real urgency to have even a deeper look at our practices.”
Complaints against Boston police officers are down 41% since 2013, and complaints about excessive use of force are down 50%, Walsh said.
“That doesn’t mean that we’re perfect by any stretch of the imagination,” he said, adding that the police department “constantly has to evolve and address these issues.”
Gov. Charlie Baker said Wednesday he does not support defunding the police, adding, “I certainly don’t support the whole concept that we should get out of the business of providing public safety to our communities.”
House Speaker Robert DeLeo said he plans to push legislation that will address policing and equity in communities of color, while Senate President Karen Spilka announced a Senate advisory group on racial justice.
Herald wire services contributed.
from Boston Herald https://ift.tt/30x571I
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