Amendments to Policy Order 2020 #133

WHEREAS: The FY21 proposed Police budget includes $3.7 million in vacant positions (not counting the vacant school crossing guard positions), including $1.7 million in the Day Patrol, Night Patrol and Traffic cost centers, and the budget also includes $1.1 million in the Tactical Operations unit, one of the more militarized aspects of the department; now therefore be it

RESOLVED: The City Council does not want to see any cuts to Youth and Family

Services (SRO/YRO), Community Relations, Procedural Justice, School Crossing or any

other community supporting programs, or any other cuts that would jeopardize the hiring of Cambridge community members into the police force in FY21, or that would otherwise reduce the diversity of the police force; and

CITY HALL, CAMBRIDGE, MASSACHUSETTS 02139

EMAIL: qzondervan@cambridgema.gov

So that the full Policy Order would read as follows:

WHEREAS: In response to the police killings of George Floyd in Minneapolis on May 25 and Breonna Taylor in Louisville on March 13—as well as the deaths of numerous other Black Americans murdered in the name of law enforcement—a wave of massive and sustained protests has erupted nationwide; and

WHEREAS: The same communities of color leading these protests have been the hardest hit by COVID-19 and the ensuing economic recession; in Cambridge, Black residents are testing positive at a rate three times higher than white residents[i]; and

WHEREAS: On May 30, reflecting some demands many Black movement leaders have begun to coalesce around, Black Lives Matter launched a new combined campaign to #DefundThePolice and #InvestInCommunities hit hardest by the coronavirus pandemic[ii]; and

WHEREAS: On June 1, the City Council unanimously passed POR 2020 #126[iii], describing horrifying instances of police violence across the country, condemning police brutality wholesale, and affirming its solidarity with people of color who have suffered under unjust criminal justice systems; and

WHEREAS: Because of COVID-19, the City is anticipating less revenue for FY21 than originally anticipated and is expecting to delay the hiring of new positions, including in the Human Services and Community Development Departments; and

WHEREAS: Commitment to anti-racism in Cambridge requires material policy changes away from using policing as a response to our city’s problems and toward addressing the human services issues of poverty, healthcare and education that are the underlying causes of those problems; and

WHEREAS: The FY21 proposed Police budget includes $3.7 million in vacant positions (not counting the vacant school crossing guard positions), including $1.7 million in the Day Patrol, Night Patrol and Traffic cost centers, and the budget also includes $1.1 million in the Tactical Operations unit, one of the more militarized aspects of the department; now therefore be it

RESOLVED: The City Council does not want to see any cuts to Youth and Family Services (SRO/YRO), Community Relations, Procedural Justice, School Crossing or any other community supporting programs, or any other cuts that would jeopardize the hiring of Cambridge community members into the police force in FY21, or that would otherwise reduce the diversity of the police force; and

ORDERED: That the City Manager be and is hereby requested to report back to the Council on how some, or all, of the $4.1 million dollar increase in the Police Department budget between 2

FY20 and FY21 may be redirected towards measures that promote public health and safety in other departments; and

ORDERED: That the City Manager report back to the Council in time for the June 15 City Council meeting at which the Council will vote on whether to adopt the proposed FY21 budget.

RESOLVED: That the City Council go on record stating its intention to support a proposed FY21 budget only if it includes a significant reallocation of funds towards measures that promote public health and safety other than policing.

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