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> The article says that a SWAT costs $10,000 US, but that cost is borne by the taxpayer and so it would be up to municipalities to deal with the risk of looking

> The article says that a SWAT costs $10,000 US, but that cost is borne by the taxpayer and so it would be up to municipalities to deal with the risk of looking weak on crime or just pay the bill. Police budgets are not infinite, taxes don't automatically get raised even if they spend all of it. Towns can and have shut down their police departments because they ran out of funding.

yareal 3y ago
Police budgets are effectively infinite. The nypd has bases internationally, Seattle's police dept has a budget of like half a billion every year. Local governments will defund every service before reducing police budgets even fractionally.
- astrange 3y ago
  NYC and Seattle are major cities. Most police departments in the US aren't in major cities. (Also you forgot about inflation.)
- djbusby 3y ago
  You're getting grey everywhere but for context SPD 2022 budget proposal was 365M, down from $401M in 2020.
  - yareal 3y ago
    The nypd has offices in sixteen cities internationally. Seattle police department budgets passed four hundred million and were only recently reduced by progressive members of the city council. They've had decades of year over year growth that exceeds both city spending growth and population growth. Bruce Harrell, Seattles mayor, is trying to increase budgets for police again and the one time reduction is unlikely to stick given the change in membership in the city council. One single reduction in a ballooning police budget is not indicative of the overall trend of massively increasing police spending. Also, the budget was 409 in 2020: https://spdbudget.seattle.gov/ https://spdbudget.seattle.gov/
Geisterde 3y ago
Taxes do not pay for anything but debt servicing. It is inaccurate to say "spend all of it", it is spent down to the penny as immediately as it is collected. Police budgets, or any government budget for that matter, are only limited by political measures in any meaningful context.
- astrange 3y ago
  You can't do MMT for a town budget! Towns don't have money printers and they're not issuing bonds for police operational funds.

yareal 3y ago

Police budgets are effectively infinite. The nypd has bases internationally, Seattle's police dept has a budget of like half a billion every year. Local governments will defund every service before reducing police budgets even fractionally.

astrange 3y ago
NYC and Seattle are major cities. Most police departments in the US aren't in major cities. (Also you forgot about inflation.)
djbusby 3y ago
You're getting grey everywhere but for context SPD 2022 budget proposal was 365M, down from $401M in 2020.
- yareal 3y ago
  The nypd has offices in sixteen cities internationally. Seattle police department budgets passed four hundred million and were only recently reduced by progressive members of the city council. They've had decades of year over year growth that exceeds both city spending growth and population growth. Bruce Harrell, Seattles mayor, is trying to increase budgets for police again and the one time reduction is unlikely to stick given the change in membership in the city council. One single reduction in a ballooning police budget is not indicative of the overall trend of massively increasing police spending. Also, the budget was 409 in 2020: https://spdbudget.seattle.gov/ https://spdbudget.seattle.gov/

Geisterde 3y ago

Taxes do not pay for anything but debt servicing. It is inaccurate to say "spend all of it", it is spent down to the penny as immediately as it is collected. Police budgets, or any government budget for that matter, are only limited by political measures in any meaningful context.

astrange 3y ago
You can't do MMT for a town budget! Towns don't have money printers and they're not issuing bonds for police operational funds.