Reviewed: Biden’s “Safer America Plan”
Speaking Security Newsletter | Note n°167 | 4 August 2022
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Summary of the Safer America Plan
The Safer America Plan is a 5-year, $37 billion proposal to beef up state and local police and invest in various crime prevention initiatives. It was unveiled in July, but this analysis is based on the expanded fact sheet the White House released this week.
Within the plan are two competing ideas on the role of police. On one hand, it has $15 billion in grants for states and cities to expand social services, pay for non-police first responders, and decarcerate nonviolent offenders. These are measures that would theoretically reduce police interactions with the public—which, considering recent data, is a smart idea—by (1) addressing root causes of crime and (2) by limiting unnecessary or inappropriate police interventions, like with mental health or substance use emergencies.
On the other hand, Biden’s plan would invest $10.877 billion (or $12.817 billion, with the funding in Biden’s base budget proposal) to “recruit, train, support, and manage 100,000 additional police officers” at the state and local level through the COPS Hiring Program. This will at least dramatically reduce the impact of the non-police investments in the plan. Over time, police budgets (namely, police payroll) tend to eat into the funding for preventive measures like social services or non-police first responders. Moreover, it’s unclear how adding 100,000 cops will reduce the number of unnecessary and inappropriate police encounters with the public.
Political context of the Safer America Plan
Biden’s affection toward projecting force inward with the police was no secret during his presidential campaign, but that fact was overshadowed by his promise to enact a robust domestic agenda, including a responsible public health response to the Covid pandemic. He hasn’t delivered. In this context, what the Safer America Plan looks like is an attempt by Biden to police his way out of his policy failures.
*Biden wanted to unveil the Safer America Plan in Pennsylvania on July 21, but had to cancel the event because he got Covid.
Visualizing the Safer America Plan
Biden already proposed a drastic increase in funding for the COPS Hiring Program—from $156.5 million to $388 million—in his base budget request for FY2023. If enacted, the Safer America Plan would send annual funding for the program into the stratosphere, well beyond previous highs:
-Stephen (@stephensemler; stephen@securityreform.org)
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