Story at a glance
- George Floyd’s death renewed calls to defund police departments in order to prevent future killings.
- Minneapolis council members have pledged to disband the city’s police force.
- Now, other city officials are reexamining the budget for local police departments.
In response to calls to “defund the police,” Boston Mayor Marty Walsh says he will consider reallocating money in the budget for the city’s police department.
“We’re going to have real serious conversations about some of the reforms we put in place when I became mayor in 2014 and 2015 and see what we can work on. I think that there’s an opportunity for us to reallocate some of that money, whether it’s into training or to community involvement,” he told a local media outlet on Sunday.
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But Walsh stopped short at committing to budget cuts, such as those promised by the mayor of Los Angeles and city officials in Minneapolis, where George Floyd was killed during an arrest.
“I think just arbitrarily cutting the budget is not the answer. I think that we have to really think about, if we’re making cuts, we’re reallocating money into different parts of our budget, what are those programs, are they going to make a difference?” he said.
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The proposed budget for the 2021 fiscal year allocates $414 million for the Boston Police Department, second only to the city’s public school system, according to the American Civil Liberties Union for Massachusetts. About $12.2 million more of that funding will go to hiring and paying officers than in previous years, while the Bureau of Professional Standards and the Bureau of Professional Development are cut by a cumulative $18.3 million.
In the interview with WCVB, Walsh acknowledged that change was necessary.
“In the past, what elected officials have done, what the community has done, we’ve had these protests, and we put a policy out. We have a big press conference and sign a piece of paper and talk about inequities. And then, quite honestly, that process isn’t working anymore,” he said. “We still have a growing wealth gap that’s getting bigger and bigger, lack of opportunity. We still have, obviously in Minneapolis, we saw a murder of George Floyd by police officers. It’s not the first one, and, unfortunately, I hope it’s the last one, but it’s not going to be the last one until we have real systemic change.”
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