The budget approved by the D.C. Council on Tuesday jeopardizes the police department’s need for more officers in favor of raising rates for insurance companies that provide care to the poor. Just days before Tuesday’s final vote, Mayor Vincent Gray asked the council to include $32 million to raise the rates charged to the city by insurance companies that provide care to the poor. Council members said they were told by administration officials that if they didn’t act, one of the two managed care companies would be unable to stay open, leaving the city in a bind. The council approved the mayor’s request in a 7-6 vote.
But the $32 million now gets top billing for extra cash expected to come from a revenue projection later this month and knocks down on the list $10.8 million that was to be used to add police officers to the force. The city will now have to add more than $135 million to the projected budget for the officers to get hired. It’s expected not to add more than $90 million.
“The amount of violent crime in this city is unacceptably high,” said at-large Councilman Phil Mendelson as he explained why he would cast a vote against the budget. “We all hear the complaints, and now in the face of that, for this council to allow the size of the police department to shrink is unacceptable.”
Earlier this year, Police Chief Cathy Lanier said it would mean “trouble” if the number of sworn officers in the department fell below 3,800. The department currently has about 3,850 officers and is losing about 15 a month to attrition. The budget will add some officers, but it’s expected that without the extra $10.8 million Mendelson had proposed, the force will slip below 3,700 by July 2012.
Police union chief Kris Baumann said the council’s decision will leave the streets unsafe.
“Given the council’s failure to honor its public safety obligations, it is probably time for the federal government to step in to oversee and maintain public safety in the District,” Baumann said.
