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Activists demand cuts to NYPD budget

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Published  March 18, 2022 7:12pm EDT
Crime and Public Safety
FOX 5 NY

Activists call for NYC to cut NYPD budget

The NYPD's 2022 fiscal year expense budget is $5.6 billion, and while the NYPD is justifying the cost, some community activists believe some of that money could be better spent elsewhere.

NEW YORK - While the New York City Council's Committee on Public Safety held a virtual preliminary budget hearing Friday, with input from the NYPD and the city's five District Attorneys, community activists again called on the Council to cut the NYPD's budget and bring the community into the conversation.

"The folks being regularly impacted by these politics are not at the table to help make those decisions," one protester said at a rally near City Hall. 

Multiple activist organizations say they want more money used to help prevent crime and believe it should be directed to youth programs and social services.

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NYPD Commissioner Keechant Sewell told the committee that Mayor Eric Adams has made it clear, the city needs a holistic approach to public safety and will engage with the city's youth.

"If we are to realize a long-term vision of public safety, minimal enforcement, and a marked impact on the number of individuals sentenced to incarceration, this vision must be achieved through prevention and not reaction. Waiting for criminal behavior to occur, and then reacting to it will only drive crime, enforcement, and incarceration."

Friday's hearing was a preliminary budget hearing, which means there are more to come as the fine details of how the money gets spent and why is ironed out.