San Francisco Dem Mayor Wants More Funding For Police After Slashing Budget In 2020

San Francisco Democratic Mayor London Breed proposed an increase in funding for law enforcement in a budget for the city’s 2022-23 fiscal year on Wednesday after severely depleting police resources two years ago.

Every year, the mayor puts forward a two-year budget proposal for the county and city of San Francisco. Breed’s most recent plan involves $13.95 billion for the 2022-23 fiscal year and $13.85 billion for 2023-24. The amounts are around 5% more than the prior year’s total approved budget of $13.3 billion.

The budget is categorized into department items, called “major service areas,” which are portioned down into smaller departments. 

In particular, the public safety area is looking at a steep increase in proposed spending. This year, the proposed total amount increased 10% compared to 2021 — from $1.75 billion to more than $1.9 billion.

Departments within the area of public protection are seeing the steepest proposed year-over-year hikes. The requested budget for the fire department increased by $59 million from $440 million last year to $499 million. The proposed budget for SFPD rose by more than $50 million, from $657 million to $708 million.

In 2020, Breed cut reduced the police budget by $120 million during the nationwide protests against alleged racially biased policing, saying she was “redirecting” $120 million “from law enforcement to start addressing…disparities.”

SF’s Black community has long been unheard and underserved, creating huge disparities in wealth, public health, education, and countless other factors.@ShamannWalton and I are redirecting $120m from law enforcement to start addressing those disparities.https://t.co/EgL50Cg4L0

— London Breed (@LondonBreed) July 31, 2020

In December of last year, however, Breed changed her tune and issued a more aggressive approach to public safety in light of more crime across the city.  

“What I’m proposing today, and what I will be proposing in the future, will make a lot of people uncomfortable, and I don’t care. We are past the point where what we see is even remotely acceptable,” Breed said in a speech at the time. “It’s time the reign of criminals who are destroying our city, it is time for it to come to an end.”

The city is expected to have a budget surplus of $75 million, which will aid in the increased funding proposal that could add more law enforcement officers, provide pay raises, and increasing the compensation of new hires to San Francisco’s law enforcement. 

There will likely be around 200 officer job openings at the end of this fiscal year, and the proposed budget would help secure 220 officers over two years with the additional funding. The sheriff and emergency management departments also saw an increase in funding, as well as the District Attorney, adult and juvenile probation, and the public defender departments. 

In addition to Breed’s two-year budget proposal, the mayor added a plan to eliminate “homelessness that would include transgender and gender nonconforming (TGNC) San Franciscans, a spokesperson for her office said,” per NBC Bay Area. 

However, Twitter users criticized Breed’s initiative for prioritizing certain homeless individuals based on their gender identity. 

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