On Monday, Baltimore Mayor Brandon Scott unveiled a new plan to increase the police budget by $5 million, and the proposal also calls for using 35 civilian investigators for police work as well as adding other staff members to help with an anti-violence initiative.
The cost of the entire proposition would amount to $4 billion, which represents a small decrease in the overall spending over the previous year.
That proposal stands to hold the line on taxes even with the increases to police spending and an additional $65 million increase in education spending, which has been mandated by the state. Roughly $742 million would be spent by the city on capital projects, adding to the $3.2 billion in general fund spending.
The total $560.4 million suggested allocation for the Baltimore police department also calls for eliminating 30 of the vacant sworn officer positions, instead favoring civilians who would help with investigations by hunting down leads and combing through databases for information relative to certain cases, according to city Budget Director Bob Cenname, who gave the information during briefing for the media.
Some suggest that Scott will face pushback from residents who have been calling for a “defund” the police approach to public safety, but he could also face backlash from those who think he has not been supportive enough of uniformed officers.
Scott could potentially expect criticism from right-wing media and the local police union, which has already called his efforts on violent crime to-date a failed “progressive social experiment,” as he has proposed to eliminate 30 uniformed officer positions in favor of civilian officers.
ARTICLE: ELIZABETH HERTZBERG
MANAGING EDITOR: CARSON CHOATE
PHOTO CREDITS: BALTIMORE SUN
