Fresno council member touts increased police funding amid national defund movement
Fresno City Councilmember Mike Karbassi on Monday touted the latest city budget that increased police funding amid calls for defunding that echoed much of the summer.
Karbassi said he will only ever vote to approve a city budget that increases the number of officers in the department until it reaches 1,000.
The city has 789 officers, police said Monday, and more than 70 are out on injury or other long-term leave.
Along with approving a $1.5 billion budget for the city last Thursday, the council approved $210 million for the police department — a year-to-year increase of about $10 million. It’s also $40 million more than the police department got two years ago.
The police budget funds two more officers and two community service officers.
Police funding had been a topic of contention nationally this year as calls for defunding departments have intensified following the Minneapolis police killing of George Floyd and other events that followed.
Police reform: officers on school campuses, mental health calls
The increase in spending also comes as the commission on police reform has made 73 recommendations for changes in police policy, including everything from no longer putting police officers on school campuses or having officers respond to mental health-related calls that are not violent to changes in the department’s hiring and recruiting to increase diversity.
“I’m not going to reject anything from the commission as of yet; I’m still reviewing everything,” Karbassi said. “There’s a lot of recommendations, and it deserves a fair review.”
“What I want to know is what are the unintended consequences?” he said.
The council also earmarked $1 million for efforts related to the recommendations of the commission on police reform.
One contentious recommendation would end the relationship between Fresno Police Department and school districts.
Police Chief Andy Hall addressed some of the recommendations made by the commission on Monday: “I think it would be unwise to completely remove police presence from our schools,” he said.
Opponents of police on school campuses, often called student resource officers, say the presence of police on campus leads to higher rates of arrest for students of color.
“The Right to Remain a Student: How California School Policies Fail to Protect and Serve” report from the American Civil Liberties Union found that students of color are more likely than their white counterparts to be arrested for minor violations and arrests increase students’ odds of dropping out of school, among other issues.
Hall said he was open to recommendations related to nonviolent calls, including calls involving those who have drug problems or mental illness.
“They’re sick. They’re not criminals,” Hall said. “They need services. More than (police) can provide.”
The decisions about funding and the commission’s recommendations also come after a particularly violent couple of months in Fresno. After a wave of violence that involved alleged gang members, Hall set up a violent crime suppression task force to tamp down shootings.
Hall said the number of shootings fell by 60% from September to October, which he credits to the task force. It also has completed 279 felony arrests in which 209 were alleged gang members, he said.
State prison officials have agreed to take 100 inmates from Fresno County Jail, according to Hall, who had previously complained about the state’s policies to accept fewer inmates during the coronavirus pandemic.
Hiring in the Fresno police department
The city and the Fresno Police Officers Association will begin recruiting officers from other parts of the country to try to increase the number of lateral hires, which are officers who have experience, according to union President Todd Fraizer.
A hiring freeze during the coronavirus pandemic has increased the need for lateral hires, Fraizer said, because those officers take less training. He pointed to Seattle as an example of a place where many officers have been trimmed or left during calls for defunding police.
“Right now we are a year (or) a year and half away from hiring any significant number of police officers,” he said. “In the meantime, we will lose 40 or 50 officers just to normal attrition.”
This story was originally published November 2, 2020 at 5:01 PM.
