I want to thank my Council colleagues for their words supporting our efforts to defund SPD so that we can reinvest in evidence-based public safety community interventions by reducing the kinds of 911 calls officers respond to. THREAD:

And my Council colleagues work considering whether specialized police units are the best way to address needs around homelessness, mental health, & violence interruption.

The Council is continuing to work through the SPD budget and we are in the very beginning stages of developing proposals. I want to address some misinformation SPD leadership is prognosticating on the content of budget cut proposals that haven’t been developed yet.

In the case layoffs are necessary, one threat is firing BIPOC officers first. Chief can request the Public Safety Civil Service Commission ED for permission to lay off “out of order” when doing so is in “the interest of efficient operations of his or her department.”

This means Chief doesn’t have to fire the newest hired first. Chief says firing BIPOC members of the SPD would be harmful & I agree. I know she can argue just as convincingly that maintaining the employment of BIPOC officers is in the interest of efficient operations of the SPD.

As it relates to the Southwest Precinct: Chief decides how to deploy officers. It is the Council that has budget authority for the funding for each Budget Control Level or the spending for each precinct.

I appreciate the update provided by Deputy Mayor Fong about the Mayor and Chief’s announcement for actions that they estimate to between $76 and $86 million in reductions to SPD’s 2021 budget.

I look forward to working with the executive and my Council colleagues during our budget process to ensure we adequately address community’s requests to invest in community safety through community-based programs.