Garcetti: City Will Redirect $250M From Budget To Invest In Black Communities
LOS ANGELES (CBSLA) — Mayor Eric Garcetti Wednesday said he would not authorize an increase to the Los Angeles Police Department budget for the upcoming fiscal year, and would be instead looking at cuts.
"To the men and women of our Los Angeles Police Department, we ask so much of you, and never more than in these days," Garcetti said. "All of us, every single one of us, are making a sacrifice. This is not on your shoulders alone."
Garcetti said he would ask City Administrative Officer Richard Llewellyn to reallocate $250 million from city's proposed 2020-21 budget to black communities to address health and education issues, though he did not provide specific examples.
The mayor said the cuts would come from all departments, including LAPD which has proposed a nearly $1.86 billion budget for the upcoming year — an increase of about $122 million.
Police Commission President Eileen Decker, who joined Garcetti in his briefing on continued unrest, also announced that the commission would put a moratorium on the LAPD entering names into the CalGang database, the statewide system that tracks people who may be affiliated with gangs.
LAPD was investigating an alleged misuse of CalGang, after it was reported in January that a teenager was wrongly entered into the system following a police stop.
PDF: Los Angeles Police Commission Releases Aggressive Reform Agenda
Decker also announced that the Police Commission would use an independent prosecutor — from outside the District Attorney's Office — to handle disciplinary matters pertaining to officers, and that the commission would seek to cut the $100 million to $150 million from its proposed budget for the next fiscal year, a reduction the City Council proposed earlier in the day.
Garcetti also said the city's new Civil and Human Rights Commission would hold its first meeting "as soon as late next week." Capri Maddox was named executive director of the commission, intended to address inequity and discrimination throughout L.A., in February.
As for the curfews, which Los Angeles has been under for the past five nights, Garcetti said as long as there were no further acts of looting or violence associated with the protests, they would not continue.
"We are at a moment which we should all demand more of each other," Garcetti said. "You certainly demanded more of me, and I've heard you."
(© Copyright 2020 CBS Broadcasting Inc. All Rights Reserved. City News Service contributed to this report.)
