Defunding Worcester Police: Activists Target 2021 Budget Increase

WORCESTER, MA — A new group in Worcester dedicated to defunding the police department has emerged following unrest over the killing of George Floyd in Minneapolis. Defund WPD has its sights set on this year's city budget.

The group's long-term goal is to refund the police department's $50 million-plus annual budget to taxpayers and use the money to address social problems that lead to crime. In the near term, the group is targeting the department's proposed $254,000 fiscal 2021 budget increase.

According to organizers, Defund WPD came together following a June 1 protest in Worcester. That night, a small group of demonstrators — some of who appeared in a larger, peaceful rally organized in part by City Councilor Khrystian King — clashed with police in Main South.

Officer dressed in riot gear fired projectiles at the group and arrested 19 people. Worcester police said officers were injured by fireworks and rocks thrown by the protesters. As videos of the confrontation spread, people opposed to police use-of-force tactics found each other on social media, Defund WPD member Eliana Stanislawski said. Then, someone pointed out that the next fiscal year's police budget was up for debate at City Council.

"It just felt like such a visceral, painful move that people galvanized very quickly," Stanislawski said about the reaction to the June 1 confrontation.

City Manager Edward Augustus Jr. released his proposed $721.8 million fiscal 2021 budget in mid-May. Like most cities and towns in Massachusetts, Worcester is expecting a drop in revenue due to the coronavirus. The police department's budget is only rising half a percentage point this year. Still, that's money that could go to schools or public health, Stanislawski said.

"We know that the City Council has the power to cut things in the proposed budget and that they have the power to do that as they pass the budget as a whole," Stanislawski said.

Defund WPD supporters have flooded public comment sessions during recent City Council meetings and have been contacting individual members via phone and email. So far, the City Council has shown resistance to cutting police funding. Councilor Matt Wally on Friday said he's open to alternate funding for police, but would be voting for the 2021 increase.

"[T]hese changes need to occur through a deliberative decision-making process," he wrote on Facebook. "It is precisely because I am in favor of that process that I do not support the current calls to defund the Worcester Police Department."

Over the past decade, the department's budget has risen steadily while crime has fallen.

The fiscal 2021 police budget request is $52.7 million with 526 budgeted positions. By comparison, the approved 2011 budget was $38.9 million for 473 positions. In 2011, Worcester had about 15,764 total crime incidents, according to FBI crime statistics. In 2018 — the latest year FBI data is available — there were 10,509 total crimes reported across all categories.

*Proposed, not yet approved by City Council

But crime statistics aren't the whole story, according to Defund WPD member Kaitlyn Selman, who's also an assistant professor of criminology at Framingham State University. People commit crimes for many reasons, like poverty, addiction, lack of education, and mental health issues, she said. Using the $52 million police budget to address those issues could be a better way of fighting crime — most often, police are only responding to crimes that have already happened, not preventing them, she said.

"It's a complex web of social issues that feed into our understanding of crime and lawbreaking," she said. "If we can address those things, we're going to have a serious decrease in law breaking behavior."

Both Selman and Stanislawski point to Minneapolis as an example of a successful police defunding effort. The Minneapolis City Council is working on a plan to dismantle the police department and replace it with a "community-led" model. That change comes after Floyd's death, but also years of pressure from local activists.

The police defunding effort in Worcester is just one of countless across the country following Floyd's death. Selman sees the larger movement as a possible turning point in the criminal justice system.

"I think this moment is important because we're seeing more people consider that a different world just might be possible," she said. "Even the fact people are asking the question is monumental."

The Worcester City Council is in the midst of debating the fiscal 2021 budget in the Finance Committee. The next meeting of that committee begins at 5:30 p.m. on Tuesday, with the regular City Council meeting following at 6:30 p.m.