Defunding The Police? It Already Happened-Law Enforcement Expenditures Since 2000

Highlights

National police spending has been relatively flat or has decreased in recent years.

There is a twenty-eight percent increase in violence (with serious violent crime increasing) that coincided with flat or reduced budgets. Gallup and the Major Cities Chiefs also recorded increases.

With decreased or flat budgets coupled with COVID tax reductions and coming fiscal cuts, law enforcement agencies will be immensely challenged.

If defunding is added to the mix, law enforcement agencies will be hard-pressed to respond to growing violent crime.

Author

Leonard Adam Sipes, Jr.

Retired federal senior spokesperson. Thirty-five years of award-winning public relations for national and state criminal justice agencies. Interviewed multiple times by every national news outlet. Former Senior Specialist for Crime Prevention for the Department of Justice’s clearinghouse. Former Director of Information Services, National Crime Prevention Council. Former Adjunct Associate Professor of criminology and public affairs-University of Maryland, University College. Former advisor to presidential and gubernatorial campaigns. Former advisor to the “McGruff-Take a Bite Out of Crime” national media campaign. Certificate of Advanced Study-Johns Hopkins University. Former police officer. Aspiring drummer.

Article

The Bureau of Justice Statistics (BJS) of the US Department of Justice released a document tracking police expenditures from 2000 to 2017 (link below). Considering the current discussion on defunding law enforcement, the document is timely.

There is no publicity from mainstream media regarding the research, and that could be explained by the complexity of the numbers offered. I tried to use the language presented in the report for many of my observations.

I was a senior specialist for the US Department of Justice’s clearinghouse interpreting or explaining USDOJ crime-related research.  The conclusions and interpretations below are mine.

COVID has shattered state and local budgets and cuts are coming for law enforcement agencies regardless of defunding concerns, Police Budget Cuts Coming.

The Bureau Of Justice Statistics Tracked Police Expenditures By:

Nominal (not inflation-adjusted) dollars

Real (inflation-adjusted) dollars

The percentage of state and local direct expenditures devoted to police protection

Police expenditures as a percentage of the U.S. GDP (gross domestic product)

And police spending by the 25 largest US cities including the percentage of a city’s budget.

The findings will differ based on discrete variables like state and local expenditures versus local funding. The vast majority of police budgets are locally funded.

What I Used For This Article

I believe the most meaningful findings focus on what BJS refers to as “real” or inflation-adjusted expenditures and the percentage of a city’s budget spent on law enforcement.

Observations

The portion of state and local direct general expenditures that were devoted to police protection fell 1.3% from 2000 to 2017.

In real (inflation-adjusted) dollars, state and local police-protection expenditures per capita rose 26% from 2000 to 2017, as they rose 26% from 2000 to 2009 and were essentially identical in 2009 and 2017 (which I interpret as flat spending from 2009-2017).

In real (inflation-adjusted) dollars, local police-protection expenditures per capita rose 29% from 2000 to 2017, rising 30% from 2000 to 2009 before falling to 0.7% from 2009 to 2017.

Spending by the 25 largest U.S. cities:

Of the 25 largest U.S. cities, 18 increased their real (inflation-adjusted) per capita expenditures on police protection between 2000 and 2017, with Austin, Texas showing the largest increase (up 77%) and San Diego showing the largest decrease (down 27%). Table below.

Of the 25 largest U.S. cities, 15 decreased their percentage of direct general expenditures devoted to police protection between 2000 and 2017, with Jacksonville, Fla. showing the largest increase (up 82%) and Seattle showing the largest decrease (down 43%). Table below.

Inflation-Adjusted Local Government Spending-25 Most Populous Cities-Percent of Expenditures Spent on Police

Source

Bureau Of Justice Statistics

Conclusions

Based on multiple indicators, police spending started to decrease around 2009 after decades-long decreases in violent crime (ended in 2014) that coexisted with considerable increases in law enforcement funding. Using the FBI numbers, the violent crime rate fell 48% between 1993 and 2016. Using data from the Bureau of Justice Statistics (National Crime Survey), the rate fell 74% during that span, Crime in America.

Police local spending per capita (inflation-adjusted) has been relatively flat with a small decrease (0.7 percent) from 2009 to 2017 after rising considerably (30 percent) from 2000 to 2009. State and local direct general expenditures fell 1.3% from 2000 to 2017.

15 of the 25 largest US cities decreased their percentage (inflation-adjusted) of direct general expenditures devoted to police protection between 2000 and 2017.

Funding for individual cities (inflation-adjusted) varied considerably based on the percentage of general city expenditures for police funding.

Violence (and serious violence) started to increase considerably in 2015 during a time of flat or decreased spending and during a time where the percentage of inflation-adjusted city expenditures for law enforcement was mostly declining, US Crime.

With the explosion of violence in a wide variety of cities affected by recent protests and a twenty-eight percent increase in violence since 2015 per the Bureau Of Justice Statistics (and Gallup and the Major Cities Chiefs Association) and with serious violent crime increasing per BJS, the current and past increases for violence have a correlation with reduced or flat national police-expenditures.

This observation needs to be balanced with 18 out of 25 cities increasing their real (inflation-adjusted) per capita expenditures for police protection between 2000 and 2017 and that the FBI recorded a small decrease for violence in 2018 based on crimes reported to the police (last full year reported).

Coupled with COVID tax reductions and budget cuts and with increasing violence, law enforcement agencies are immensely challenged.

If defunding and reduced services are added to the mix, police agencies will be hard-pressed to respond to growing violence.

It’s also clear that local leaders in New York, CBS, Baltimore, and additional cities are calling for increased police budgets or an increased police presence.

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