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Defund The Police? Here’s How Much SF & Oakland Spend on Police

SF currently spends 10% of general fund ($606 M) on police, while Oakland spends 44% ($291 M)
By - posted 6/16/2020 No Comment

Thanks to SF Gate for their research and letting us know how much several prominent Bay Area cities spend on their police departments.

A few things to start with is that every city and budget can vary wildly and can’t often be compared apples to apples.

Also for context, most people who call to “Defund the Police” generally are not advocating eliminating police departments completely (although there are some who advocate doing that or following the model of Camden, New Jersey which disbanded the police department and rebuilt it from the ground up).

In general, “Defund the Police” refers to re-examining budgets, reallocating certain funds from the Police Department to community-based services such as education, public health, housing and mental health services to help lessen the need for police to respond to every situation. Here’s how The Cut explains “What Exactly Does It Mean to Defund the Police?“

Police Budgets for 2019-2020

Please note the numbers below are for the 2019-2020 fiscal year.

  • San Francisco – Police budget of $606 million (10.1% of General Fund) – Population is 883,305
  • Oakland – Police budget of $291 million (44.1% of General Fund) – Population is 429,082

Read the full article on SF Gate and to compare the police budgets for San Jose, Berkeley, Richmond, Palo Alto and more.