Police unions really have rigged the system. They got cities to sign legally binding contracts that prohibit any layoffs of police. So they can’t really cut size of the police force. And they can’t cut the budget because they also agreed to automatic salary/benefits increases.

So you have places like Louisville where the budget is just going to keep going up every single year until the police union contract is changed. Period. And the police unions have to agree to and sign off on any changes to the contract. That’s the system that they’ve constructed.

Only way around it is state legislation permanently removing these issues from the scope of police union contract negotiations and, in the absence of that, applying extreme and targeted pressure to cities that are currently negotiating their contracts (like Louisville).