NYC Budget Justice

We Demand a #NYCBudgetJustice for Safety & Dignity!

Since the national uprisings of 2020 fueled by the police killing of George Floyd, Communities United for Police Reform has led a historic coalition of local and national organizations united to demand #NYCBudgetJustice – a call for real public safety through investment in infrastructure and community safety solutions and reducing the reliance on police and criminalization.

This year, our NYC Budget Justice Coalition has released a new FY24 platform called A New York City Budget for Safety & Dignity that calls for cuts to the NYPD's bloated $11B budget and overreach and demands bold investments in housing, mental health, education, youth services and other public infrastructure that will actually increase the immediate and long-term safety of all New Yorkers!

For the second year in a row, NYC Mayor Eric Adams is continuing to prioritize police-based approaches to a range of public health and safety issues. He has expanded regressive and failed policing tactics and allowed massive NYPD overspending while cutting the budgets of crucial city agencies that New Yorkers rely on for essential safety-net services. This is not the pathway to true public safety and is especially harmful to New Yorkers who are Black, Latinx, immigrants, LGBTQIA+ and other people of color living in communities that are over-policed and underresourced.

CPR’s #BudgetJustice Coalition demands that City Council move money away from policing towards much needed community based safety solutions and infrastructure by: 

1. Save NYC's community safety infrastructure & make government work for New Yorkers.  City Council must protect & invest in resources for us all and real community safety solutions to keep New Yorkers safe, including: 

• Mental health and harm reduction programs
• Affordable housing & housing protections for unhoused and low-income NY’ers
• Education and youth services
• Violence prevention and intervention programs
• Public transportation, libraries, and legal services

The City Council must stop the Mayor from cutting life-saving agencies and ensure that city government works for New Yorkers trying to access support & services. 

2. Cut the NYPD's bloated annual $11B spending & redirect funds to community safety needs by:

• Removing police from social services, including: 
  • End NYPD involvement in mental health issues and dismantle NYPD Mental Health Co-Response Teams 
  • Cut the growing "homeless police" in the Dept of Homeless Services
  • Remove police from youth services & youth engagement and redirect that money to community-led, youth-serving and youth organizing programs. This includes getting police out of New York City schools, dismantling "Youth Coordination Officers" and related youth programs that shouldn't be run by police.
• Cutting funding and shut down notoriously abusive NYPD units that make us less safe, like: Strategic Response Group (SRG) and VICE.
• Cut at least $45.8 million from the NYPD budget as a way of holding the NYPD accountable for failing to fire officers that kill, brutalize and/or sexually assault New Yorkers. This number represents a fraction of the cost of only SOME of these officers’ salaries.
• Cut the budget of the NYPD's outsized 36-person public relations spin machine that regularly spreads disinformation.

3. End special treatment for the NYPD and hold NYPD accountable to budgets and annual spending like other agencies. NYPD’s lack of transparency serves as structural protection from any meaningful fiscal oversight. That allows the NYPD’s budget to continue to balloon and the NYPD’s impunity and power to grow unchecked. 

• Stop letting the NYPD overspend its budget every year by more than $5 billion without any meaningful consequences.
• Require NYPD transparency in the budget by requiring that the NYPD report on private monies that it receives from police foundations.

READ OUR FY24 BUDGET JUSTICE PLATFORM AND TAKE ACTION WITH US!
Tell your City Council Member that we need transformative change that includes cutting the NYPD budget and committing significant investments in communities!