NORTHAMPTON — Over the past few weeks, Americans have taken to the streets in protest against police brutality and racial violence. Echoing similar calls from cities across the country, thousands of demonstrators have crammed Center Street in recent days and hundreds tuned in to City Council meetings with demands to defund the Northampton Police Department.
But how is the city’s current $6,719,824 police budget built? And what does defunding police mean to those protesting and some city councilors who have spoken up on the subject?
Looking at the broad strokes of the Police Department’s current budget, $5,810,220, or 86%, is set aside for personnel services, which the budget defines as “all salary line items including regular salaries, overtime, longevity payments, etc” for the 72 full-time equivalent and one part-time sworn and civilian employees at the department; two patrol officers, one lieutenant and one captain position were vacant at the time the budget was crafted.
A total of $604,244, or about 9%, pays for operational costs, and $305,360, or around 5%, was allocated for five new police cruisers. The Police Department’s budget represents 6.67% of the city’s current $100,658,857 total budget.
The Police Department’s budgeted funds has increased in past years, having been set at $5,889,505 in FY17; $6,218,078 in FY18; $6,310,465 in FY19; and $6,719,824 in FY20, according to budget proposals. Between fiscal years 2017 and 2019, the NPD did not use all of the money budgeted for the department. For example, in fiscal year 2019, the department was budgeted about $6.3 million but actually spent approximately $5.8 million. Police Chief Jody Kasper said the department always budgets for full staffing, but sometimes positions are vacant, and the Police Department returns unspent money allocated for salary and benefits, as well as the associated equipment and training costs, to the city.
According to the current year’s budget, Kasper’s base salary was $149,035; Capt. John Cartledge made $107,140; lieutenants made $87,294; sergeants made $71,125; and patrol officers had a base salary of between $44,288 to $55,559. These numbers precede a collective bargaining agreement that provided salary increases across all city departments in August 2019, according to Kasper, which brought the Police Department’s total budget to $6,719,824 this fiscal year.
According to the budget document for the current fiscal year that was crafted before the collective bargaining agreement, personnel services also included $1,335,860 for overtime; court time; holiday pay; stipends for detectives, first responders and crime scene services; crossing guards; and, special officers. The $1.3 million also includes about $500,000 for the department’s career incentive program, among other items.
According to Kasper, the $604,244 budgeted for “operations and maintenance” includes $50,270 for the repair and maintenance of the department’s vehicle fleet; $12,500 for the repair, maintenance and purchase of office equipment; $60,377 for communication equipment like phone bills, radios and computers; $87,171 for information technology (IT) items such as laptop computers and software; $56,928 for trainings and seminars; $27,100 for medical/testing services; $14,030 under “telephone;” $1,000 for advertising; $25,000 for animal control expenses; $5,500 for general office supplies; $84,431 for gasoline/diesel; $57,350 for uniforms and other clothing; $18,000 for photography supplies used by crime scene services; and $12,050 for dues and memberships.
The operations and maintenance budget also includes $92,537 for “police supplies,” which Kasper said, “covers all of the different supplies and equipment that we need to operate, outside of the other categories that have individual line items.” She said items that fall under this category include ammunition; targets; O.C. (pepper) spray; handcuffs; flares; personal protective equipment; medical supplies; mask filter canisters; CPR training dummies; leather gear; evidence collection materials; miscellaneous electronics; bicycle equipment; signs; crossing guard supplies; keys; batteries; fire extinguishers; badges and badge repair; and an assortment of other items.
Following hours of citizen testimony over two days of virtual City Council meetings earlier this month, during which hundreds showed up to oppose a $194,000 proposed increase in the Police Department’s budget for the next fiscal year, Mayor David Narkewicz late last week revised his original plan.
The mayor instead proposed a $6,700,759 police budget that is about $19,000 less than the current fiscal year’s budget; this move cut $8,000 that Kasper wanted for training and will decrease another line item by more than half by buying two hybrid replacement vehicles rather than five. The cut, which represented more than $200,000 in proposed additional spending, was approved during a first vote on the budget at a City Council meeting last week.
In the city’s budget proposal for the next fiscal year, Kasper noted that the Police Department’s training budget cannot meet the “ever-increasing demands related to training in areas including deescalation, implicit bias, use of force, and mental health response.”
But the mayor’s proposed cut is not enough for many who want deeper cuts.
Jasmine Sinclair, the organizer of a protest in front of the police station earlier this month that attracted at least 4,500 participants, said that, for her, defunding the police means reallocating funds away from law enforcement and instead giving it to other programs, such as those supporting housing, schools and mental health. At the protest, Sinclair read a list of demands and called for a one-third reduction in the Police Department’s budget.
“Imagine if cities didn’t look at health care and housing as a business, and looked at it as an essential need of the population that lives there,” Sinclair said. “And I feel like that begins with taking money away from places that don’t need it, and one of those places, in my opinion … is the Northampton Police Department.”
Ward 2 City Councilor Karen Foster said that the City Council voted to approve the budget because, if the council didn’t act on the proposal within 45 days, the mayor’s proposed budget would have gone into effect. But Foster said the vote was taken with the understanding that Narkewicz would collaborate with City Council President Gina-Louise Sciarra on a process for what police reform would look like in the city.
“We’ve heard that change and reform need to happen,” Foster said. “To me, the work is in the details of how and when, not if.”
Foster said the police are responding to calls that could be handled by other professionals in other areas — for example, in addiction and mental health counseling. The challenge, she said, was making sure there was a solid process for how others would step in for what police do now.
“I agree that we need real, meaningful and substantive reform, and we need to spend the dollars on what’s going to bring that about,” Foster said. “And I’m ready to take on that process of deciding how we allocate those funds in the city. To me, it’s a community conversation that needs to involve multiple stakeholders.”
Ward 5 Councilor Alex Jarrett said that the city’s Police Department has a force larger than most other municipalities similar in size to Northampton. He said that declining crime rates in the city combined with the department’s large force made an argument for reducing the department’s size.
“I don’t want to rush these decisions. I want to take the energy and the momentum we have now and change things,” Jarrett said. “I want us to have a plan for what we’re replacing the services that the police provide now.”
Jarrett said he wants to see the police budget decreased and that he would support decreasing it further. He said alternatives need to be thought through before decisions are made.
“If we support people who are being policed instead of policing them, by meeting their basic human needs, we can reduce the need for policing,” he said.
Michael Connors can be reached at mconnors@gazettenet.com.