PHOENIX – The Phoenix City Council narrowly rejected a plan Wednesday that would have sharply increased funding for a newly established civilian oversight committee for the police department.
The council voted 5-4 against the proposal to raise funding for the new Office of Accountability and Transparency from $400,000 to $2.9 million, saying it was more important to get the office up and running first and that funds could be added later as needed.
The vote capped six hours of budget debate that was dominated by speakers demanding that the council cut overall funding for the police department, currently proposed at $721 million for fiscal 2021. That decision was put off until Monday, however, as the council voted to continue its budget debate then.
Wednesday’s hearing came on the heels of days of clashes between police and demonstrators protesting the deaths last week of Dion Johnson in Phoenix and George Floyd in Minneapolis at the hands of police officers.
No members of the public were allowed in the council chambers for Wednesday’s hearing, but hundreds of protesters gathered outside and 183 signed up to speak on the budget, calling in their comments for close to four hours of the six-hour meeting. Even though they were kept outside, booming chants of “black lives matter” could be heard inside the council chambers on the streaming video of the hearing.
Witnesses – some of whom were protesters calling from outside Phoenix City Council – urged the council to cut police funding and redirect the money to programs like healthcare, education and housing.
“The proposed budget as it stands is unacceptable and it’s offensive that this is being considered,” said Monique Kelson, one of the protesters stuck outside in 109-degree heat.
“Over $700 million to a police department that continues to break records for shootings and using excessive force, especially in comparison to the near $52 million that is proposed for community development and enrichment collectively,” Kelson said.
It was that record of officer-involved shootings that led the council in February to approve the creation of a civilian oversight committee for the police department, after years of trying and failing to approve such a body.
Phoenix was the largest city in the U.S. without a civilian review board, according to a 2018 report by the National Police Foundation. That same year, Phoenix posted the highest number of officer-involved shootings in the nation, 44, of which 23 were fatal, the report said.
At the outset of Wednesday’s hearing, Council Member Carlos Garcia proposed the $2.5 million increase in funding for the oversight office – a proposal that an angry Council Member Sal DiCiccio later blasted as an “attack on police.”
But Jacob Martinez, an organizer with NextGen America who was outside the hearing with other protesters, said he believes the newly established oversight committee will be “preventative” and will decrease incidents of police brutality in the city.