Major cities ‘refund the police’ as crime skyrockets and businesses backfire
Citizens fight back with lawsuits, secession from cities in quest for increased safety
By Sumner Park FOXBusiness
One year after the movement to "defund" police saw cities slash budgets and cut funding, the U.S. has seen an uptick in crime. Homicides alone are up 24% since January and more than 70% of people in a recent Fox News Poll said they believe crime is on the rise nationally. As a result, the pendulum may be swinging back in favor of the police.
"Now some cities are refunding the police department," FOX Business’s Stuart Varney said on Varney & Co.
Cities like New York City, Oakland, Baltimore, Minneapolis and Los Angeles are planning to reinstate tens of millions for the construction of new police precincts, increase police department budgets, among other plans to bankroll more efforts to confront the uptick in crime.
Overall, in several of the nation's largest local law-enforcement agencies, city and county leaders want funding increases for 9 of the 12 departments where next year’s budgets have already been proposed, with increases ranging from 1% to 6%, according to the Wall Street Journal.
New York City Mayor Bill De Blasio announced that the city will return $92 million for a new precinct after the project had been cut last summer. The move comes in the wake of a reported 16 shooting incidents and five homicides last weekend. New York Police Department (NYPD) crime data shows that shooting incidents in the Big Apple are up 68% year-to-date and up over 30% within the past month.
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https://www.foxbusiness.com/economy/major-cities-refund-the-police-as-crime-skyrockets-and-businesses-backfire