Photographer: Jason Whitman/NurPhoto via Getty Images

The Defund-the-Police push that emerged in the wake of George Floyd's killing has both galvanized protesters in the street and shaken up city halls across America. So when the mayor of Cincinnati proposed an increase, rather than a decrease, in police funding next year, the reaction was swift.

One after another, infuriated residents grabbed the microphone at city council hearings in the past week to blast Mayor John Cranley and demand that his million-dollar spending increase be voted down. 

“This budget is nothing more than kindling on the fires that are burning our communities to the ground,” one speaker shouted at the hearing held last Thursday. Later that night, as tensions continued to mount, the committee chairman abruptly suspended the session, prompting protesters to pour into the streets of downtown Cincinnati, where they burned an American flag and defaced the convention center hosting the hearing with graffiti. In the end, the city council on Wednesday decided against an increase, keeping the police budget unchanged.

While Congress remains at an impasse on an overhaul of U.S. policing practices, activists are rolling up partial victories in cities along the country’s coasts. The leaders of New York, Los Angeles, San Francisco, Boston and Seattle have all pledged to slash police spending, but the raging debate in Cincinnati highlights how contested this fight is. Police budgets have long been considered untouchable, even as residents call for money to be funneled into other types of services like social programs and affordable housing. They say those programs, rather than more training and equipment for police, will ultimately lead to safer streets and better protection for Black communities.

Meanwhile, Senate Democrats in Washington blocked a GOP bill on Wednesday, saying it doesn’t do enough to curb police brutality. The House is expected to pass a more stringent Democrat-introduced proposal on Thursday, but Congress is nearing a two-week July recess and may not pass any police agenda until after the November elections. In Cincinnati, the mayor is not backing down.

Defunding the police is "not the solution,” Cranley said in an interview. “The solution is to add social services, not take away the safety that middle class neighborhoods, working class neighborhoods and low-income neighborhoods need."

Cranley had said before the city council vote that he expected the budget to pass unanimously, including the proposed spending bump that was going toward salary increases for officers. Those pay raises will still happen, and the city will defer a cadet class to raise funds for community programs. Other cities like Durham, North Carolina, for example, are also resisting budget overhauls but plan to invest in mental health treatment and crisis intervention that can operate independently of police.

Related: Why ‘Defund the Police’ is a Plan with Many Meanings: QuickTake

Budget Season

Mayors started unveiling spending plans earlier this year and are working with city councils to craft budgets for fiscal years that typically start July 1, making it an opportune time for activists to target expenditures. On social media, activist groups shared information about local budgets and how users could contact their council members.

“I’m not hearing a desire for more traditional policing, for more arrests, for more citations, for more criminalization,” said Sasha Naiman, deputy director of the Ohio Justice and Policy Center, an advocacy group in Cincinnati. “I’m hearing a desire for community members to have issues like homelessness addressed.”

Cities are also facing major budget gaps due to the Covid-19 shutdowns in economic activity. In Cincinnati, Mayor Cranley’s fiscal year 2021 spending plan seeks to close a more than $70 million deficit using one-time funding sources and borrowing. Police spending in 2021 will stay the same as this year at $151.5 million; separately, the city will boost funding for a civilian oversight board to hire two more full-time staffers.

The protests and activism calling for defunding have encouraged conversations about police that weren’t happening on a broad scale before, said Tracey Corder, campaign coordinator with the Action Center on Race and the Economy, an advocacy group. Cities are taking unprecedented steps after years of activist calls for police divestment, she said.

“We’re seeing folks create a national narrative but through local demands,” Corder said.

Quick Cuts

A Minneapolis cop killed George Floyd on May 25, sparking weeks of demonstrations around the country that encouraged Congress, state legislatures and city councils to take on police reforms. A 2019 study found that Black men in the U.S. face a 1 in 1,000 chance of being killed by police over the course of their life, higher than any other demographic.

In Portland, Oregon, the city council agreed last week to cut $27 million from the police budget and tied those spending changes to investing in other programs. Commissioner Jo Ann Hardesty, who sought to cut police funding last year, said in a June 17 statement that the cut wouldn’t have been possible without activists’ demonstrations and advocacy.

“Never in my life would I have imagined we could cut so much so quickly out of a police budget,” she said in a statement.

Los Angeles Mayor Eric Garcetti has said the city will cut $100 million to $150 million from the police department and reinvest the money, plus an additional $100 million, into the Black community. San Francisco is also planning to cut its $700 million police budget.

In Baltimore, the city council unanimously voted in a $22 million cut to the police budget, which was approved by lame duck Mayor Bernard C. “Jack” Young. Instead of social services, the savings will go into a surplus fund.

Divided City Halls

But progressive city council members across the country are facing off with Democratic mayors who are more resistant to foundational cuts and instead offering smaller trims that fall far short of activists’ demands.

In New York City, Mayor Bill de Blasio has been under pressure to enact $1 billion in cuts to the city’s massive police force. The mayor, who was elected on a plan to reform policing, has so far resisted such a deep reduction, agreeing to divert some money to youth programs and civilian-led efforts to fight crime.

Related: De Blasio the Critic Turns NYPD Defender to Fight Budget Cut

In Oakland, where ongoing calls for police reforms intensified after the killing of Floyd, community activists have called to slash the police budget by 50%, or $150 million. But late Tuesday, the city council approved a $2.5 million reduction, according to Council member Nikki Fortunato Bas, who said she voted against the measure and condemned the council for failing to solicit community input. The cut builds on Mayor Libby Schaaf’s proposal to reduce OPD spending by $5.5 million, and falls short of Bas’ plan to redirect $25 million into the community.

“This budget is a slap in the face to thousands of Oaklanders who called on Council to #DefundOPD + #InvestinCommunity #BlackNewDeal,” Bas tweeted.

In Hartford, Connecticut, two council members in the Working Families Party, Josh Michtom and Wildaliz Bermudez, have been fighting to cut the department’s budget by 21%, or $9 million, and aimed to redistribute the funds to programs like early childhood education and public works.

Instead, the other Democratic council members voted this month to reduce the 2021 police budget by $1 million, in addition to about $700,000 in cuts already proposed by Mayor Luke Bronin, for a 3.6% reduction overall. They’ll also move $1 million that’s currently being spent on a detention center and a vice narcotics unit into revamped community-policing training and a domestic violence team.

Even if cities don’t take up defunding measures now, local organizing across the U.S. can sustain the movement’s momentum, said Corder, the campaign coordinator with the Action Center on Race and the Economy.

“These fights don’t stop,” she said.