Mayors Who Cut Police Budgets Get Their Own Security Details

Police departments in Los Angeles, Denver, Milwaukee, and Minneapolis provide expensive security details for mayors and other city officials even as those mayors cut funding and positions in those departments.

The Los Angeles Police Department’s more than $1.8 billion budget initially was cut by $150 million in 2020 (a portion of the cut was restored in 2021), eliminating about 500 officer jobs.

In 2020, while the police department budgeted for 10,000 officers, it had 9,985. By 2021, the LAPD had 9,503 sworn officers as crime spiked, reported the Los Angeles Times.

“The LAPD is hemorrhaging officers, with more leaving the force than are joining it,” as the LA Times put it.

Now down to 9,100 officers, the city’s 2023-24 budget funds a $1.9 billion LAPD budget with 9,504 officers, aiming to increase the ranks by offering a $15,000 sign-on bonus for new hires and officers joining from other departments.

Then-Mayor Eric Garcetti oversaw the city as the police department shrank, and cut its budget by $150 million, but current Mayor Karen Bass pledges to build it back up again.

While the department was dwindling, Garcetti, the city attorney, and chief of police each received security details costing $17 million over six years.

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