Reduce NJ Police Budgets And Invest Elsewhere, Think Tank Says

NEW JERSEY — After the murder of George Floyd, protests against police brutality and racial injustice emerged in all 50 states and around the world. At the same time, police budgets received increased scrutiny from the public.

A new report from the New Jersey Policy Perspective examines the cost of policing versus Health and Human Services in the Garden State. The think tank's report suggests reducing police budgets and investing funds elsewhere.

The research most closely examined Elizabeth and Gloucester County — the former a larger, urban city and the latter a more rural collection of smaller towns. Elizabeth's police funding made up 19 percent of its 2018 municipal budget and has increased by $1.8 million per year since then.

Gloucester County's police department's vary from 14 to 25 percent of local spending, with an average of 20 percent, according to the report. Local government's in Gloucester County appropriated more than $77 million to police departments in Fiscal Year 2020.

NJPP compares the spending to that in health and human services programs, which they say "promote public safety more broadly by addressing the structural root causes of crime."

Elizabeth's municipal police budget of $52 million is 5.7 times the city's Department of Health and Human Services (DHS) budget of $9.1 million. The city's DHS provides several programs and services, including rental assistance, help with prescription drug payments and free health clinics. Between FY 2020 and FY 2021, the police budget increased by $2.8 million (5.8 percent), while the DHS budget decreased by $401,000 (4.2) percent, the report says.

"Despite increased police funding, Elizabeth has not seen a significant increase in police performance or public safety," the NJPP said. "A standard measure of police performance is the clearance rate, which is the percentage of crimes that result in police locating and bringing charges against a likely suspect. In 2020, the latest available data states that the Elizabeth Police Department had a clearance rate of 13.2 percent, a rate that has remained stable since at least 2017, despite increases in funding."

NJPP proposes several ways to invest funds elsewhere, such as health care. Broader access to health care, especially substance use disorder treatment, has been linked to crime reduction, the report says. Across the United States, increased health care access reduces violent crime by 5.8 percent and property crime by 3 percent, with an estimated savings of $13 billion to taxpayers because of crime reduction.

Other suggested investments include neighborhood restoration, quality early-childhood education, community centers and community-based violence interruption programs. NJPP also suggests investing in alternate-response teams, citing the Newark Community Street Team as a successful example.

Newark's program began in 2015, operating a trauma recovery center, developing a robust victim-services program and partnering with University Hospital’s Hospital-Based Violence Intervention Program. The team responds to reports of violence from the community or law enforcement, connecting people involved with counseling, mediation and other outside resources to help avoid arrests. From 2016-20, Newark saw record-low homicide rates.

"New Jersey has the opportunity to be a leader in the fight for equity and justice," the NJPP concludes. "But to do so, the state must respond to and invest in the unique needs of historically marginalized communities by exploring alternative models to policing. These models, like police departments, may look a little different in every community."

Read the full report here.