Public safety in the Mayor's proposed budget
A quick look at proposed changes
Mayor Bowser unveiled her proposed Fiscal Year (FY) 2024 budget today. She proposed $1.66 billion in operating funds for the “Public Safety and Justice” cluster of agencies, with a mix of increases and cuts. Here’s how some of the key programs fared:
Many agencies, including the largest ones (MPD, FEMS, DOC), had relatively small overall adjustments between -4% to +5% compared to this current year’s approved budget
Within MPD’s budget there are a number of interesting shifts of funds away from Patrol Services, towards Investigative Services and a tacit acknowledgement that MPD staffing will likely continue to shrink
The largest cuts are -37% to the Department of Forensic Sciences (which includes the crime lab), -32% to the Office of Victim Services and Justice Grants and -14% to the Office of Neighborhood Safety and Engagement (ONSE)
One large increase is $9M for "the Safe Passage Safe Blocks program, which provides a presence and safe passage for students and families as they travel to and from school."
Some key services that help prevent crime (as discussed in the last post) have proposed cuts:
-12% for Family Services (mostly in homelessness-focused programs as well as youth services)
-7% for the Child/Adolescent/Family Services part of the Department of Behavioral Health (including a 49% cut to Substance Use Disorder (SUD) Prevention & Treatment)
Source: https://cfo.dc.gov/page/proposed-fiscal-year-2024-budget-agency-cluster
Within MPD, the overall $10.1M cut reflects an 11% decrease in Patrol Services (which is ~44% of MPD’s total budget) that then “pays for” increases in other Bureaus:
Investigative Services has a large increase but 2/3 of this “increase” is just a transfer of Crime Scene Investigations from the Department of Forensic Sciences. There is also an increase for Narcotics and Special Investigations.
The Professional Development Bureau (PDB) got an 11% increase, with large increase for the Academy, HR & the Disciplinary Review Division. Recruiting actually got a 20% cut (but it is still higher than any recent year other than FY23)
The Mayor proposed “civilianizing” 18 FTEs in PDB (at about $116K total cost per employee) to free up sworn officers for other duties. This could work as MPD has shifted about 100 sworn officers into admin and support roles since 2019 (as detailed in this post). I haven’t seen any comments from the DC Police Union about this proposal and they may have concerns about filling current union roles with civilians.
Interestingly, the Mayor proposed a 30% reduction to the School and Safety Division. This would remove 20 FTEs ($2.2M) at the same time there is an active debate in the Council about MPD’s School Resource Officers (SROs).
The Chief of Police office received a large $5.2M, 47% increase. The budget document directly accounts for "$1,432,000 and 6.0 FTEs in the Office of the Chief of Police bureau to promote diversity, equity, inclusion, and cultural change initiatives" but the remaining increase of $3.8M is unexplained.
There have been at least 4 discrimination lawsuits representing 20 former MPD officers and employees in recent years. So it’s possible the DEI initiatives are a response to MPD’s legal risk. On the other hand, many DEI initiatives have “backfired” and/or failed to achieve their stated objectives.
It’s also worth noting that several parts of the budget document tacitly acknowledge that MPD is not likely to hit its recruitment and retention goals. These “savings” from attrition are a contributor to the overall budget “balancing”:
“The proposed Local funds budget includes a reduction of $20,916,700 in the Patrol Services North and South bureaus. This adjustment is comprised of $9,232,731 shifted to Federal Payments as an alternative funding source and a reduction of $11,683,969 to account for cost savings in personal services due to the agency's high rate of attrition”
“Additionally, the Local funds proposed budget includes a decrease of $6,003,312 and 22.3 FTEs across multiple bureaus, which reflects anticipated savings due to projected attrition in staffing levels and vacancy savings.”
“Additionally, a Local funds decrease of $475,000 is proposed in the Professional Development Bureau, of which $125,000 relates to savings in polygraphing due to hiring expectations” - Since polygraphing is part of the vetting process for new recruits, this speaks to lower hiring expectations
The largest % cut for any of the Public Safety agencies was to the Department of Forensic Sciences, which lost $12M or 37% of its budget. However, most of this reduction is due to functions being transferred to other agencies rather than being cut altogether. The remaining function, Forensic Science Laboratory, received a $1.6M increase but lost 16 of its 62 FTEs. The lab had a very high vacancy so its likely these are vacancies. I’ll be looking into the lab and its impact on policing in a future post since the USAO partially blamed the lab for the reduced rate of prosecutions.
The largest Public Safety cut in terms of total dollars came in the Office of Victim Services and Justice Grants (OVSJ):
Access to Justice (legal services for low-income residents) took the largest hit (-$18.7M or -59%)
Truancy reduction took a 57% cut “mainly due to the funding adjustment in the chronic absenteeism District of Columbia's public and charter schools through youth and family engagement.” I honestly don’t understand that “explanation” but we’ll learn more in the coming days. Recall that when kids miss an above-average number of school days they are 3X as likely to be arrested.
Victim Services lost $6.8M, a 16% cut
The Office of Neighborhood Safety and Engagement (ONSE) took a 14% cut:
19% cut to Violence Interruption funding and a 37% cut to its FTEs
A very minor cut to Pathways, one of the targeted programs for high-risk youth
36% cut to Family and Survivor Support and a 77% cut to Restorative Justice
One of the largest increases* is $9M for "the Safe Passage Safe Blocks program, which provides a presence and safe passage for students and families as they travel to and from school." This existing program’s budget is now under the Deputy Mayor for Public Safety and Justice office and only has a single FTE assigned to it. I couldn’t find where the existing funding was pulled from so the total increase is probably less than the total $9M.
Lastly, there was a mix of increases and cuts for agencies and programs that support crime prevention:
Overall education funding increased, with DC Public Schools’ budget increasing by 5.7% and DC Public Charter Schools by 7%. However, education advocates have raised concerns both about these funding levels not keeping pace with inflation and budget cuts at specific schools.
Family Services received a 12% cut. There was a $34.8M reduction in the Emergency Rental Assistance Program (ERAP, which helps prevent people from becoming homeless) and $25.1M spread across various specific homeless populations and Youth Services. Homelessness and housing instability are key risk factors for both kids and released prisoners committing crimes.
Overall funding for the Department of Behavioral Health increased 2.2% but decreased 7% for Child/Adolescent/Family Services; which included a 49% cut to Substance Use Disorder (SUD) Prevention & Treatment. “Externalizing” forms of mental illness raise a child’s risk of arrest 2.8 times above average and released prisoners with Substance Use Disorders are 22% more likely to be re-imprisoned.
Residents, journalists and legislators will be asking a lot of questions about this budget over the coming months. Council hearings run through mid-April with the “work session” where each Committee reports out their recommendations on May 3rd (timeline and hearing schedule here: https://www.dccouncilbudget.com/fy-2024-budget). I hope this “quick” look at the Mayor’s budget was helpful.