CUTS TO POLICING AROUND THE COUNTRY AND ALTERNATIVES
Albuquerque, NM:
Forming a unit of unarmed city staff to answer non-criminal 911 issues, such as “inebriation, homelessness, addiction, and mental health.”
Aurora, CO:
In September, 2020 Aurora City Council members granted initial approval to fund a pilot program that would see more mental health workers responding to local 911 calls instead of police officers.
Austin, TX:
City Council voted to cut the police budget by 33%.
Funds cut from the police budget made it possible for Austin to purchase two hotels for houseless community members in February, by paying for the wraparound services necessary to run the hotels.
From a Feb 4, 2021 story in The Appeal: “In the wake of Black Lives Matter protests this summer, we made a significant cut to policing dollars and reinvested that in things like this,” said Council Member Gregorio Casar, who led the effort to cut police funding and sponsored an amendment last August that set aside $6.5 million in recurring funding to be used for permanent supportive housing and services. “That’s how we’re paying for this. That’s the only reason we’re able to do this.”
“The city’s Homeless Services Division will contract with nonprofit service providers to cover operating costs and set up wraparound services for residents, like case management, support for mental health or substance use issues, workforce development programs, and job placement services.
In total, the purchases will create about 140 units of low barrier permanent supportive housing with these kinds of wraparound services.”
Berkeley, CA:
In July, Berkeley City Council approved a measure to remove police from traffic stops and create a new Department of Transportation, becoming the first city to do so. The City Council also set a goal to cut the police department budget by 50%.
Boston, MA:
In June of 2020, Boston Mayor Marty Walsh cut $12 million from the police overtime budget and reallocating it to public health, mental health, human services, and housing security.
Burlington, VT:
After more than 1,000 people called into city meetings in one week, the Burlington City Council approved a 30% reduction in the police force in June 2020. The new cap is 74 officers from the previous 105. The reduction in officers will be through attrition as officers leave or retire.
Cambridge, MA:
In June of 2020, five hours of public comment on the police department showed massive support for reversing a proposed increase to the police budget. City Council voted unanimously to take $2.5 million intended for filling police department vacancies and use it to hire staff for housing & social work positions instead.
Colorado
“In 2017, the state legislature passed a bill to reinvest $4 million of the state’s $1 billion corrections budget in community programs in two regions with some of the highest incarceration rates in the state, particularly for people of color. The funding is going toward grants for community organizations—with allocations determined by local planning teams—and small business lending, often to formerly incarcerated people.”
Denver, CO:
Denver launched a pilot program, STAR, in June of 2020, a mobile non-police crisis response unit similar to CAHOOTS.
Eugene, OR:
For over 30 years, their CAHOOTS program, a partnership between the police and a local community center called the White Bird Clinic, has helped increase community safety, wellbeing, and trust. When a call comes in, if it is deemed non-violent, no police officer is sent, and only a small fraction of the time is one called after the fact. Eugene serves as an important precedent and model for towns around the country looking to rethink emergency call responses.
Hartford, CT:
Cut $1 million from the police budget in June, 2020, and took steps to create and allocate $5 million dollars of funding over 4 years to a non-police crisis response program, expected to launch in 2021.
Ithaca, NY:
In February, 2021, Ithaca Mayor Svante Myrick, announced a proposal that would replace the city’s existing police department with a “Department of Community Solutions and Public Safety” intended to remove officers from most civilian interactions. Mayor Svnte Myric: “The investigators are going to be focused on the shooting last Tuesday, they will have nothing on their plate except finding that gun, finding that shooter and taking them off the street. They won’t be pulled away from that work by a motor vehicle crash on 3rd Street or a welfare check on Madison…Those calls, as well as a majority of patrol activity, can and should be handled by unarmed Community Solution Workers well trained in de-escalation and service delivery. This will allow our new Public Safety Workers to focus on preventing, interrupting and solving serious crime.”
The Mayor envisions the department to be up and running by the summer of 2023.
Los Angeles, CA:
Mayor Eric Garcetti is implementing $250 billion in reallocation to community services, most of it from the LAPD budget. City council has proposed that unarmed specialists would respond to calls for mental health & substance abuse matters. In October, 2020, the city and county of Los Angeles announced a collaborative effort to build their own unarmed emergency response system. The so-called Therapeutic Transportation Pilot Program will bring LA County Department of Mental Health (DMH) workers into the emergency response system, and will be able to handle calls that come in through 911 as well as calls that go directly to the LAPD or to the fire department.
Minneapolis, MN
In the fall of 2020, the council was able to pass an $8 million cut to the department’s 2021 budget and reinvest that money into a mental health crisis team, additional training for 911 operators, and other non-police actions to reduce violence.
New York, NY:
The City Council has proposed $1 billion in police budget cuts.
Oakland, CA:
In July of 2020, “The Oakland City Council unanimously agreed Tuesday night to form a task force that will work on a plan to reconstruct public safety in Oakland — with the goal of reducing the police department budget by 50% over the next two years.” The City Council is expected to implement the task force recommendations in its budget adoption on June 30, 2021.
In June 2020, the Oakland City Council approved a 2020-21 budget that cut $14.6 million from the police department. Four separate City Council members introduced proposals to cut an additional $2.75 million and $10.4 million from the police budget in July, though both measures were rejected by the mayor.
In March, 2021, Oakland City Council voted to create Mobile Assistance Community Responders of Oakland (MACRO), a civilian response program that will send civilians to 911 calls involving mental health crises.
Olympia, WA:
In 2019 Olympia, Washington started using a non-police crisis response mobile unit, similar to CAHOOTS.
Sacramento, CA:
On October 27, 2020 the Sacramento City Council unanimously approved a new plan to establish an explicit definition of “public safety” that goes beyond services provided by police, fire, and emergency medical workers, so that more money can be allocated for community-based programs focused on building up youth and the other “upstream” violence prevention efforts, as well as alternative emergency response systems.
San Diego, CA:
Is launching a police-free pilot program consisting of clinician-peer units that can be mobilized via the 911 system or a community helpline.
San Francisco, CA:
In December, 2020 “SF officials will launch its own alternative emergency response system that utilizes health workers within the fire department to handle mental health emergencies. The teams will consist of a mental health clinician or social worker, a paramedic, and a trained community member with lived addiction and recovery experience. The pilot program is expected to take on approximately 20,000 of 300,000 calls for police.” San Francisco’s effort is set to be the largest urban effort of its kind to date.
In June, the mayor announced that “San Francisco Police Department officers will stop responding to non-criminal activities such as disputes between neighbors, reports about homeless people and school discipline interventions as part of a police reform plan.”
In July, 2020 “San Francisco Mayor London Breed unveiled a proposed budget Friday that includes pulling $120 million from law enforcement agencies and putting it into programs that support the city’s largely underserved Black community.”
Seattle, WA:
In December of 2020, Seattle cut the police budget by 18%. The cut includes cuts to overtime and training, and was also accomplished by moving 911 dispatch and parking enforcement out of the police department, and not filling dozens of vacant positions. Millions of dollars will be redistributed to local community organizations, including $30 million towards a community-led participatory budgeting process, programs to support the houseless population, and climate action initiatives.
Earlier, in the summer of 2020, the budget chair of the City Council called for a 50% decrease in funding to the police department, which 7 of the 9 council members committed to voting for, and the city is beginning an inquest into the budget. While this did not pass, 50% cut had support from many city councilors.
Toronto, Canada:
The city of Toronto has partnered with the Reachout Response Network to create a non-police, peer-led crisis response team.
Cities which already have non-police mobile crisis response programs or who are in the process of piloting or developing them:
Non-police crisis response programs, which pair an EMT with a mental health responder, are already up and running in Eugene, OR (CAHOOTS, for over 31 years), Denver, and Olympia, WA. The following cities are also already considering or planning CAHOOTS style models for the coming 1-2 years: Minneapolis, Ithaca, New York City, Albuquerque, Berkeley, Dallas, Raleigh, Hartford, Houston, Oakland, Portland, Sacramento, San Diego, San Francisco, Chattanooga, Rochester, Los Angeles, Aurora, Chicago, Toronto.
Here is a database of other actions taken by cities and states.