“This is ‘police protection for me (the political elites), but not for thee (the citizens),’” Andrzejewski said.
The Chicago-based group is a nonprofit that uses public-right-to-know and freedom of information laws to maintains hundreds of publicly available databases of federal, state, and local spending with the goal of providing “every dime online in real time.”
In San Francisco, for example, the costs of the security detail protecting Mayor London Breed and other city officials spiraled up from $1.7 million in 2015 to $2.6 million in 2020.
Breed has proposed shifting $120 million from the city’s police department to mental health and workforce training programs. City officials declined to say how many officers are assigned to the security details, according to OTB.
In Chicago, Mayor Lori Lightfoot claimed to be opposed to defunding the police, but OTB found that officials quietly abolished 400 police department positions last year.
Those positions were eliminated even as the city’s “security detail costs peaked in 2020—up $700,000 over five years: $2.7 million spent on 16 officers (2015); $2.9 million for 16 officers (2016); $2.7 million for 20 officers (2017); $2.8 million for 16 officers (2018); $2.8 million for 17 officers (2019); and $3.4 million for 22 officers (2020)—an all-time high,” OTB stated.
In New York, Mayor Bill de Blasio slashed $1 billion from the New York Police Department’s (NYPD) $6 billion annual budget, including $354 million transferred to mental health, homelessness, and education services.
But the mayor, who briefly sought the Democratic presidential nomination last year, continues to enjoy tax-paid police protection for himself, his wife, and his son.
City officials haven’t yet agreed to disclose the costs or number of officers assigned to the multiple de Blasio security details, according to OTB.
In Baltimore, Mayor Brandon Scott’s administration spent $3.6 million on a security detail that included 14 officers to protect the chief executive as well as State’s Attorney Marilyn Mosby and Police Commissioner Michael Harrison, according to data compiled by OTB. The Baltimore Police Department budget has been reduced by $22 million.
“Protection for the mayor included six officers and one sergeant, costing almost $2 million,” OTB said in the statement. “The state’s attorney has three officers and one sergeant, costing $1.3 million. The police commissioner’s security detail included two officers and one sergeant, costing $464,948.”
Baltimore has been plagued for a decade with steadily rising rates of serious crime, including murder, robbery, and assault. The city has also seen two of the present mayor’s immediate predecessors, Catherine Pugh and Sheila Dixon, resign and be convicted on various corruption charges.
In San Diego, Mayor Todd Gloria’s administration budgeted $2.6 million for 12 full-time officers to protect him and members of the city council during meetings and city hall.
Notable among the other cities examined by OTB were these:
Despite two years of near-continuous rioting led by Antifa and Black Lives Matter activists, Portland officials slashed $15 million from the police budget and disbanded a gun violence reduction unit and transit team that had been accused of over-policing black communities, among other cuts.
Milwaukee officials are cutting 120 police officer positions, beginning with the current year’s budget. The reductions are to come mainly by not replacing retiring officers. Sixty positions were eliminated last year.
In Seattle, city council members at one point last year declared their intent to slash the police budget by half, but ultimately settled on a 20 percent reduction.
Los Angeles officials have approved a $150 million budget cut from its $1.86 billion proposed budget.
In the nation’s capital, officials reduced the Metropolitan Police Department’s budget by $15 million.
Philadelphia residents have seen local officials transfer $33 million from the police to other programs.
