More Money For Cops? 25 NJ Groups Say ‘No Way’ – Here’s Why

NEW JERSEY — Will more money for cops make America safer? A coalition of social justice groups in New Jersey don’t think so – and they’re putting three Democratic members of Congress on blast for trying to put more funding in the hands of local police departments.

Last week, 25 community organizations from across the state signed a petition titled “More Police Funding Won’t Make Us Safer,” which was addressed to U.S. Reps. Josh Gottheimer (D-5), Mikie Sherrill (D-11) and Andy Kim (D-3). Read its full text here.

The petition was written in response to a letter that the three Congress members signed in May, which supported H.R. 6448, also known as the Invest to Protect Act.

The bill, which has seen bipartisan support, would create a new federal grant program for local police departments that have fewer than 200 officers. Grants would be available for officer recruitment and other personnel costs, as well as body cameras and other equipment. The legislation would also have funds for officer safety, de-escalation and domestic violence response training.

“Cutting to the bone only weakens any profession; it pushes good people out, it diminishes the overall quality and fuels a race to the bottom,” said Gottheimer, who helped spearhead the legislation.

“In short, when it comes to law enforcement, you need to invest to protect,” Gottheimer said.

The proposed law saw support from multiple law enforcement sources when it was announced, including Bergen County Sheriff Anthony Cureton and New Jersey State Troopers Fraternal Association President Wayne Blanchard.

“All of these investments are a huge win for individual police officers, police agencies and the citizens we proudly serve,” Blanchard said.

More than 95 percent of the nation's local police departments have 200 officers or less, according to a report from the U.S. Department of Justice.

• See related article: U.S. Bill To Bolster Police Funding Introduced By NJ Congressman

But according to the activists who signed the July 29 petition, there’s one thing that the bill’s supporters are failing to mention: police funding is already at “historically high levels.”

According to a recent study from MoneyGeek, which compared states based on how much they spent on policing and prisons in 2019, the United States spent $205 billion on law enforcement, amounting to $123 billion spent on policing and $82 billion on corrections.

New Jersey ranked as the state with the 15th highest spending overall, with a $656 per capita rate – about 5.16 percent of its entire spending total. Read More: Here's How Much Money New Jersey Spends On Cops And Prisons, Study Says

A 2021 analysis from nonprofit think tank New Jersey Policy Perspective showed that there are several towns and counties in the state that are spending big chunks of their budgets on policing.

For example, Gloucester County allocates an average of 20 percent of their total municipal budgets to police, and Elizabeth allocates 19 percent – a conservative estimate, the report says. Both spend more on policing than any other vital municipal department, such as health and human services. Read More: Reduce NJ Police Budgets And Invest Elsewhere, Think Tank Says

“We take exception to the basic premise of the letter sent by you – our elected representatives – that more funding to police departments will make us safer,” the coalition wrote in their petition. “This premise is completely out of step with the widely held consensus among social science and public safety experts, who have unequivocally shown that more police do not make us safer.”

“Even as we have invested more and more money in the police, their rate of closing cases has continued to fall,” the petition continues. “Part of the reason why is because violent, racist, militarized policing has lost the connection to the communities they purportedly serve. Many of those same communities are experiencing crime rates among the lowest they’ve seen in decades, a trend that may reflect investments in education, social services and the communities themselves – not a return on investment in police.”

• See related article: Violent Crime Up In Newark For 2021, But Down Over 3-Year Period
• See related article: Newark Will Take $12M From Police, Reinvest In Social Services

Meanwhile, police are being forced to answer a slew of public health calls that involve addiction or mental health – situations that they often have “no skills or training to handle,” activists allege.

“We are putting the burden of public health on law enforcement rather than public health services,” the petition states. “When funding is driven by actions – calls for service, stops, arrests – it creates the perverse incentive to do more of those things. This means that we criminalize social problems and the overfunded police spend only 4 percent of their time responding to ‘violent’ crimes … We essentially create a vicious circle: More crimes and arrests mean more funding. More funding means more crimes and arrests.”

How should taxpayer money be spent if not on policing? Some suggestions from the coalition include:

• Invest in mental health, addiction, and social work professionals so that they, instead of the police, can respond to times of crisis and despair. They have the training and ability to provide help and care, not harassment and punishment.
• Invest in community-based violence interruption programs which have been proven via rigorous studies to actually reduce violence, unlike undercover units, street crimes task forces, and criminalizing poverty.
• Invest in our communities, not outsiders coming in to act as a hostile occupying force. Refurbishing schools, building community recreational centers, increasing homeownership, providing food assistance, eviction prevention, direct income stimulus, and universal medical care all require investment — and all have proven to decrease crime and recidivism without spending another dime on failed policing strategies.

“If we want to push back on a media built around sensationalist headlines and uncritical parroting of police narratives crafted by well-funded propaganda departments, then we need to stop listening to the lobbyists, the police unions and those driven to justify injustice,” the coalition charged.

“We urge you to hear your constituents, and to validate the lived experiences of the people in our communities,” the activists concluded. “Instead of reinforcing and emboldening unaccountable, harmful police systems in ways that will not make us any safer, act to protect our communities in ways that your constituents want - ways that have been shown to be effective. Only a commitment to investing in our communities as the top priority can equitably and effectively make us safer.”

The list of signatories to the petition included: Our Revolution New Jersey, Southern Burlington County NAACP, ACLU-NJ, BlackLivesMatterNJ, Essex Rising, House Of Hearts Organization, Indivisible NJ 5th District, Ironbound Community Corporation, Latino Action Network, Make the Road NJ, March for Our Lives New Jersey, New Jersey Institute for Social Justice, New Jersey Policy Perspective, New Jersey Working Families Alliance, Newark Communities for Accountable Policing, Perth Amboy Area NAACP, People's Organization for Progress, Salvation and Social Justice, SOMA Justice, South Jersey Progressive Democrats, St. Thomas A.M.E. Zion Church, Union Chapel, Unitarian Universalist Congregation at Montclair, Unitarian Universalist Faith Action NJ, Voters of Tomorrow New Jersey.

• See related article: NJ Teens Protest: 'We Don't Want More Police In Schools After Uvalde'
• See related article: Massive US Defense Bill Gets 'No' Votes From 3 NJ Congress Members

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