Three police funding grants are working their way through committees to eventually go before the Madison City Council, none of which would require taxpayer dollars but could add hundreds of thousands to the police department’s operating budget.
Police funding has been a controversial topic in recent years, heightening after the death of George Floyd, a Black man who was murdered by a Minneapolis police officer in May 2020. In response, Madison erupted with looting, tear gas and fire after hours of peaceful protesting; local activists called on elected leaders to defund the city’s own police department.
Later that summer in 2020, Mayor Satya Rhodes-Conway slashed the department’s general fund by nearly $2 million as part of budget cuts. It was the largest decrease to the Madison Police Department’s budget in the last 10 years.
Taxpayer dollars toward the city’s police department have fluctuated since. But MPD might have a workaround to combat the cuts in the form of grants.
Over the past three decades, law enforcement and police spending have been top priorities for municipalities, according to a Wisconsin Policy Forum report, receiving one out of every five operating and capital dollars spent by cities in the state.
In the past year, Madison shifted $82,000 from MPD’s 2022 budget to the Madison Fire Department for the Community Alternative Response Emergency Services, or CARES. The program is an alternative to police addressing mental and behavioral health crises, with CARES teams deescalating, treating or referring people to behavioral health services in the community instead.
While MPD’s 2022 budget is approximately $80 million, the vast majority of spending goes to salaries, wages and benefits for department staff. With 2023 budget decisions ahead and a projected $13 million deficit in the city’s operating budget, cuts seem imminent.
The three resolutions approving additional state and federal funds for MPD have already passed the Public Safety Review Committee and are moving to the Finance Committee for approval before heading to the City Council.
Related: Police and the Madison Schools.