What’s in Biden’s budget for the police?
Speaking Security Newsletter | Advisory Note for Organizers and Candidates, n°93 | 6 July 2021
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Situation
Establishment Democrats have really leaned into pro-police messaging as of late—saying that it’s actually the Republicans who want to defund the police—probably in response to Republican messaging about crime rates. White House Press Secretary Jen Psaki said last week that Biden ran “and won...on the platform of boosting funding for law enforcement” while Republicans have always been trying to do the opposite.
What the data says
Lots going on here, and a lot of it wrong. I’ll make just two points. It’s dishonest to attribute Biden’s win to his stance on police funding. Not only because of the obvious correlation-vs-causation thing, but also because Biden also ran on demilitarizing the police (which voters largely support and what both congressional Republicans and police unions/interest groups object to), only to renege on that promise once in office.
It’s also dishonest to cast Republicans as anti-police, even if you’re just looking through the narrow (but still very meaningful) lens of federal subsidies to state and local law enforcement agencies through Department of Justice and Department of Homeland Security grant programs. Far as I can tell, Biden’s budget request can fairly be described as just a continuation of the spending trajectory under Trump, who had increased funding for the major police grant programs from Obama-era levels (and each year after that).
There was a decrease in the COPS hiring program from Clinton to Bush. That may have had something to do with the change in administrations, but probably more because the program emerged from the 1994 crime bill as an effort to place 100,000 new police officers on the streets as quickly as possible. After that, there was also a transfer of COPS resources to elsewhere in the DOJ budget.
**Note: I made a mistake with yesterday’s newsletter. Biden did not vote for the Gulf War as I wrote. He only regretted not voting for it and said he wish he had supported the war. The chart and text have since been updated to reflect this correction. Apologies for any inconvenience caused.**
Thanks for your time,
Stephen (@stephensemler; stephen@securityreform.org)
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