Proposed committee would study cutting Lansing police budget in half

LANSING — A Lansing City Council member wants a committee to study ways to halve the Lansing Police Department's budget over five years. 

The proposal, presented by Council Member Brandon Betz on Tuesday, follows nationwide calls from activists who want cities to cut funding from law enforcement and reinvest that money in social services and anti-poverty programs. 

Related: Activists call for Lansing to defund police; Where do City Council members stand?

Lansing has budgeted $46.5 million for the police department in the current fiscal year which began July 1. Most of that money, $39 million, is earmarked for personnel, according to a budget resolution.

Betz's proposal would create an ad hoc committee whose members would study how best to redirect money from the police department to "community-led social programs (that) are proven to increase community safety in a more cost-effective manner than policing."

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City Council President Peter Spadafore would appoint members of the council to the committee and the committee's recommendations would be non-binding. Lansing's mayor introduces budget resolutions with ultimate approval required from a majority of the eight-member City Council. 

The police department budget represents more than a third of Lansing's general fund and roughly one-fifth of the total budget. 

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"We say that this is an end to using our tax dollars to confine us, to over-police us and to brutalize us," Black Lives Matter Lansing leader Angela Waters Austin said Tuesday at a news conference in support of Betz's proposal.

Betz, whose term ends Jan 1, 2024, suggested the city could begin by cutting the police department budget by 20%, or $9.3 million, in the next fiscal year. Within five years, he wants the budget cut by $23.5 million to 50% of its current funding level. 

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Betz, who represents the city's First Ward, acknowledged cuts of that size would almost certainly involve reductions in staffing, including layoffs. Some changes could be constrained by Lansing's police union, which is operating under a contract that sets wages and benefits through the summer of 2022.

In a statement, leaders of the Capitol City Labor Program, the union representing Lansing police, did not directly address Betz's proposal but added they have "long supported progressive police reform" and are open to talking with city leaders about changes to create "safer and more efficient policing."

Asked if the reductions could include cuts to training for police, Betz said anything is on table. 

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A spokesperson for Mayor Andy Schor said Tuesday afternoon the mayor has not yet seen Betz's proposal and will review it "along with other proposals from City Council and the community."

Spadafore has not said whether he would vote yes or no to Betz's proposal, but suggested the issues could be studied by pre-existing committees such as the public safety committee or the ways and means committee. 

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Last month, council members voted to declare racism a public health crisis and promised to create a new standing committee tasked with remedying racial disparities. 

Spadafore added he was a "little skeptical" of calling for a predetermined amount of money to be cut, suggesting figures should result from further study and discussion. 

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He has suggested "re-imagining" public safety in the city, such as by hiring more social workers to handle incidents such as welfare checks instead of police. 

Betz said he proposed a 50% cut because of "feasibility" issues that might preclude larger cuts. Betz acknowledged Lansing will need to continue paying millions in health care and pension cuts for its retired police officers. The police department's legacy costs are about $17 million annually, according to a budget breakdown from the city.

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Hundreds of people marched in Lansing this summer against racism and police brutality following incidents including the death of George Floyd, a Black man killed by a white Minneapolis police officer who knelt on Floyd's neck for nearly nine minutes.

And dozens of residents at City Council meetings have urged officials to defund Lansing's police department with some activists calling for the police department to be abolished entirely. 

More: Lansing's police commission chair abruptly resigns; Community meeting on force postponed

This summer, Schor signed onto the national 8 Can't Wait pledge, promising to enact a series of reforms believed to reduce violence by police. He's scheduled a series of town hall meetings on race, policing and use of force and announced that Lansing officers will no longer be stopping drivers solely for minor violations, such as cracked windshields.

The new traffic guidelines will eliminate "any aspect, inferred or otherwise, of bias-based traffic policing practices," Police Chief Daryl Green wrote in an internal memo.

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Another proposal from Schor would have redistributed $170,000 in unspent money, including $100,000 from the police department, last fiscal year to a fund supporting local anti-racist organizations. 

An additional $50,000 would have come from the Human Relations and Community Services department and $20,000 would have been redirected from the mayor's office. 

Betz called that measure a "tiny drop in the bucket," and said money appropriated from the Human Relations department would have been taken "directly from Black communities."

City Council members tabled the anti-racism fund proposal in June and could discuss it further this month. 

Contact reporter Sarah Lehr at slehr@lsj.com. Follow her on Twitter @SarahGLehr.