The coalition also recommended cutting the budgets of the Municipal Court and the criminal division of the City AttorneyвЂ™s Office by 50 percent. The proposal calls for eliminating SPDвЂ™s narcotics unit, cutting the special victims unit budget by half, eliminating the departmentвЂ™s public affairs unit, and moving the civilian Community Safety Officer program out of the department and into the new Community Safety and Communications Center (CSCC). This yearвЂ™s solidarity budget also calls for a 50 percent cut to the criminal legal system, largely by cutting the total number of SPD officers to 750-roughly 300 fewer officers than the department currently employs. Ultimately, the council chose to reduce SPDвЂ™s 2021 budget by 11 percent and set aside a participatory budgeting program that project was subsequently delayed until at least next year. The coalition, which includes Decriminalize Seattle, the Transit Riders Union, and Columbia Legal Services, among other advocates, released the first solidarity budget last year, lobbying the council to decrease the Seattle Police DepartmentвЂ™s budget by half and to launch a city-wide participatory budgeting program to re-distribute public safety dollars. The coalition released their plan two days before Mayor Jenny Durkan proposed her own 2022 budget-the fourth and final budget of her term. On Saturday, a coalition of Seattle-area police abolitionist groups and community nonprofits debuted the cityвЂ™s second вЂњsolidarity budget,вЂќ a set of spending proposals for SeattleвЂ™s 2022 budget that would shift dollars away from police, prosecutors and the municipal court to pay for mental health services, education and housing programs.

Program budgeting pdf