CPD In The News
That investment, as evidenced by findings in a Center for Popular Democracy report, has been a costly one. Between 2011 and 2014, the city has paid out $9.3 million in police misconduct lawsuits. … The authors of the Center for Popular Democracy’s report describe budgets as “moral documents” in that they serve as reflections of “what—and whom—our cities, counties, states and country deem worthy of
Big cities like Minneapolis, Los Angeles, Atlanta, Detroit, Baltimore, and Houston spent more than 25 percent of their general fund budgets on their police departments, according to a 2017report by the Center … for Popular Democracy.
flooding the streets in communities of our country with more and more police under the guise that it is going to be community-oriented,” said Kumar Rao, director of the Justice Transformation Program at the Center … for Popular Democracy, one of the letter’s signatories.
In Oakland, California, according to budget reporting conducted by The Center For Popular Democracy, 41.2 percent of city spending goes to policing.
Kumar Rao, the director for justice transformation at the Center for Popular Democracy, says these are steps that “Congress should have taken long ago.”
police being armed to the teeth is particularly striking given that research has found no evidence that shoring up police budgets keeps civilians safer — in fact, to the contrary, a 2017 report from the Center … For Popular Democracy found that reallocating the money currently being spent on policing towards “a living wage, access to holistic health services and treatment, educational opportunity, and stable
cities like Minneapolis, Los Angeles, Atlanta, Detroit, Baltimore, and Houston spent more than 25 percent of their general fund budgets on their police departments, according to a 2017 report by the Center … for Popular Democracy.
To quote New York human rights lawyer Kumar Rao, “This is Bill de Blasio’s ‘very fine people on both sides’ moment.”
The Center for Popular Democracy can help contextualize that number with it's Freedom to Thrive report, which profiled major cities and their police forces.
“As a country, we are continuously increasing the amount of spending that we do on policing and criminalization, and that naturally comes with tradeoffs,” said Kumar Rao, director of the Justice Transformation
