CALIFORNIA—A $150 million cut to the Los Angeles Police Department’s budget was approved by the Los Angeles City Council on Wednesday, July 1.
The budget cut will take place starting the next fiscal year. The cut comes after some have taken to the streets to protest police brutality after the death of George Floyd, a Minneapolis resident who was killed by Officer Derek Chauvin on May 25. Some of these protests have called for police departments to be defunded.
The city council voted 12-2 with Councilmen John Lee and Joe Buscaino voting in opposition to the decision to defund the police department.
Lee emphasized how much he believes police officers have grown in recent years and reminded the public that two-thirds of LAPD officers are currently people of color.
The proposed operating budget for the LAPD was about $1.86 billion before Wednesday’s decision, which has been derided by the Los Angeles Police Protective League, the union that represents the department’s approximately 9,900 sworn officers.
Many of those who called for the defunding of police are asking that the money taken from the LAPD’s budget be used to fund other community services, such as public housing, homelessness, health care, and more.
