While the city of Concord recently approved a 2020-2021 budget of nearly $100 million that includes almost $60 million in funding for the city’s Police Department, city leaders said adjustments to those police spending numbers over the coming months and years is possible.
That discussion will begin at 6:30 p.m. on July 15, when the city will host a study session focused on police procedures in Concord.
At that meeting, viewable over the Internet via Zoom, Police Chief Mark Bustillos will talk about his department’s use-of-force policies, de-escalation and anti-bias training, accountability, discipline, hiring practices and efforts to address mental health issues.
At the June 23 City Council meeting where adjustments to both the 2019-2020 and 2020-2021 city budgets were approved, council members said they want to use the July 15 session not only for discussion of current police procedures and operations, but also of how the city can better integrate police operations with social services including the Family Justice Center and county-sponsored CORE teams that help homeless people connect with various resources.
Several public commenters at that June 23 meeting said the city should reallocate some of the police budget to social programs, including housing, mental health and youth programs that stand to suffer amid overall city budget cuts.
“We need our budget to be radically re-examined,” Kristi Laughlin of the Concord-based Raise the Roof Coalition told the council. “We’re asking you to walk the talk, and not just make an appearance at Black Lives Matter rallies.”
Crime is high enough in Concord and has been getting worse. More social workers won’t help that. Enough is enough with this “defund the police” narrative. I am now ready to sit back with my popcorn and watch this thread grow into 200+ comments. #PopSmoke!
Put that up to a vote by the people of Concord if you are so sure that’s what they want and not just some radical leftist idea that will pass.
Love the idea that this should be put up to a vote. However, one reason that it may not be put up to a vote is that the city leaders already know what the people of Concord want, and it doesn’t align with their agenda. I dunno, just a guess.
Read the Concord police reports on here and tell me they need their budget reduced.
And maybe Pittsburg and Antioch can chip in since all we are doing is arresting their residents.
I believe that the inevitable consequences of a reduced police presence in our community will far outweigh the speculation of suggested benefits.
I think you mean to say anti-American, anti-democracy agenda
The current politicians don’t need to wake up, the need to be removed period. There is zero redemption for this
We apparently need to have city officials who recognize that there is a small, very vocal and activist Marxist minority operating in CCCounty that are literally “trained Marxists” and do this activism for a living getting paid by Soros funds
How about we start to tell the Marxists shut the F up and go away and let our police continue to do what they always do which is a good job
The “silent majority” will be behind it
Back the Blue
👍🏻
End of discussion right here.
That’s a typo, she means “Racially re-examined”.
Defund the police and allocate all the money to our heroes in the Fire Department.
There you go! If Trauma is for it, it can’t be good!
Police people no matter what their color or race and enforce the laws. Concord has become a pit due to the gangs and district attorney’s office doing the catch and release to many time to count. I am sick and tired of the city, county and state allowing the criminals and certain specially treated races not to pay fines when they blatantly break the law time and time again.
Make them repay the damages they incur and what they steal and destroy.
DO NOT DEFUND THE POLICE.
Don’t just complain here call the city. https://www.cityofconcord.org/Directory.aspx?DID=43
Physical Address:View Map
1950 Parkside Drive
MS/01
Concord, CA 94519
Phone:
925-671-3158
Just now emailed them. We all have to be louder than these special interest groups out to destroy us.
60% of the budget goes to police. Santa Rosa, a city similar in size as Concord, has funding for police at less than 40%. I don’t think we should defund the police department by any means, but look into where the money is being spent. If the department is paying large amounts of OT, than adjustments need to be made. 60% going to the police alone, since we don’t pay for a fire department seems extremely high. 40% to run the rest of Concord seems quite low. It would be nice to get the roads paved with some of the money.
You can’t make a decision like this based solely on population size!
There is a BIG difference between a city like Santa Rosa and a city like Concord. Concord has historically had a higher crime rate than Santa Rosa. A higher crime rate requires higher expenditure. Apples and oranges.
Since Concord has higher crime historically, are you saying we need to delegate even more budget to the police to lower the crime rate? Your statement is saying crime rate is directly proportional to the amount we spend. Why don’t we make it 75% of the budget, and only have 25% to run the rest of the city?
This comparison was an example used by the city council during one of the budget meetings I attended last year. OT was also one of the largest expenditures listed by the police department. OT is a budgeting nightmare and should only be used when absolutely necessary. If police continue to use a lot of OT that means they are understaffed. One senior officer who gets at least 25% annual OT, would provide enough money to hire a new rookie police officer which would help eliminate gross amounts of OT and a ballooning police budget.
Just a little google search regarding police budgets in big cities:
The share of the general fund is far higher in other cities such as Los Angeles. The LAPD has a 2020 budget of $1.7 billion according to the report and that accounts for over a quarter of the general fund. The share is even higher in Chicago at 37 percent with the total police budget approximately $1.68 billion. In Minneapolis, the 2017 data shows that the police budget accounted for 35.8 percent of the general fund, totaling $163 million.
Concord = 60% of the general budget.
Like I said, I’m not for defunding the police. I understand the importance of police when it comes to the safety of our community. I just never understood how 60% of the budget goes to the police alone.
If you are supportive of Concord PD or do not want to see reduced police services in Concord PLEASE PLEASE PLEASE contact the City Council and/or the Valerie Barone, the city manager.
citycouncil@cityofconcord.org
Valerie.Barone@cityofconcord.org
The people that are the loudest right now are anti-police and most of them do not even live or come from Concord.
It would be even better if someone could comment in during a city council meeting (they’re done remotely via Zoom).
A few people held up signs or index cards in front of their activated webcams in the Board of Supervisors Zoom meeting. It worked, you could see it getting under the skin of a few of them. Just write clearly in a dark marking pen so it’s visible.
Raise the Roof wants to make Concord a Sanctuary City and defund the police.
No thanks!
Where you been? We have been waiting for you. Concord has bee a an official sanctuary city for years. Welcome to the machine
It’s time we looked really hard at just exactly what out city leaders do, how much they get paid and just exactly what their approval rating is. Why all of a sudden do we need to defund our police? I’m not aware of any bad cops in Concord or incidents where Concord cops have killed innocent people. Why do we need to defund them all of a sudden? This is nonsense. Crime is on the rise and it’s this sort of horse s*** that’s responsible for that. If you want to reduce crime then you have to deal with the criminals in a way that let’s them know that there are consequences for their actions instead of handing out slaps on the wrist. Perhaps we should defund the city council and redirect their paychecks to people will do something about our out of control and growing homeless problems, repair our aged and pot hole riddled city streets, and reduce our crime rate by DEFENDING our police men and women who risk their lives everyday. The mere suggestion that our Concord cops deserve anything less than our support and respect is dispicable.
Well said Mac!
Maybe the powers that be want all of concord to look like Monument Blvd aka the Monument Corredor.
Kristi Laughlin needs to be shut down before she destroys our city!
Salty here…
TRAUMA. Thank you for making another stupid comment. You just made my day.
Let’s vote. Defund TRAUMA Yes/No..
Salty votes YES..
Salty OUT!!
Got my vote!!
I agree!!!
If they want to defund the police then they need to start allowing those that pass the qualifications to get a concealed carry permit. Crime is only getting worse and as it is now the police are stretched pretty thin in protecting us. Cut this social crap and hold everyone responsible for there actions and treat them the way the laws were meant to be.
Please, someone correct me if I am wrong.
If Concord is almost twice the population of Walnut Creek, and has an operating budget of 100 million. How does Walnut Creek get away with a 90 million budget. Shouldn’t Walnut Creek be around 50 million?
Where is all the money going?
Let’s recap:
Concord population 130,000+ Budget = 100 million per year
Walnut Creek population 70,000+ Budget = 90 million per year
Do not defund the police as we need more policing considering how the protesters and thieves get away with everything these days. The District Attorney’s office is a joke and just catch and release the repeat offenders who know there are no consequences for them.
The larger population are then taxed to death to make up the difference since the repeat offenders aren’t asked to pay for the time suck and drain they cause or any fines they are responsible for.
Remember elected officials we are watching and we can vote you out. You folks have a habit of double speak and rarely carry out your promises as you are to busy pandering for your next vote.
“Remember elected officials we are watching and we can vote you out”
Unfortunately, they count on the fact that the California electorate usually votes incumbent. It’s far easier to do that and requires little to no effort!
Concord City councilman Edi Birsan just put out his latest “Pulse of Concord” survey. It pertains to “defunding” or “defending” the police. It will be interesting to read the results.
Do you have a link to that survey? I couldn’t find it. Thanks.
We need more police, who are harder on crime, not the opposite.
Put it to a vote and the people will favor more police. We are tired of lawlessness and violence and feeling unsafe in our own homes. We are tired of our politicians cutting the legs out from under the very men and women who stand to protect us against criminals. Yes there are a tiny portion of bad police, but the vast majority of police do good work, some of them are goddamn heroes.
City of Concord, don’t cave in to their demands. No matter what you do – they’ll never be satisfied and they’ll never do anything to help themselves.
Diana Becton should be recalled. That brave couple she is domestically terrorizing with her privileged power is the type of stuff that will lead to civil war
Hello George 👀
That exactly the plan
In a public forum 3 weeks ago the chief admitted that most of the calls are regarding the homeless. He needs to give us concrete #’s so we know what percentage of time and money is being spent on responding to homeless calls. Avg salary with benefits for a Concord police officer is $204,000.
We could get 2-3 outreach workers for the price of one officer and allow the officers to concentrate on other crimes.Plus we don’t have to worry about paying as much for retired officers in the future.
Well said Michael.
Also don’t call CPD for a 5150. Completely useless & made the situation worse. Officer had a crappy attitude. I was so happy when the firefighter/paramedics showed up. They talked the person down & then did the transport.
And yes I filed a complaint with CPD and then there were crickets
I was really hoping Concord would stay out of this until the madness had died down *sigh* Now we’re probably going to be the next protest target.
There’s a worthy conversation to be had about this topic, but it should be limited to actual stakeholders and people who know what they’re talking about. The police, social workers, emergency service workers, the city council, reputable community organizations, and maybe some additional experts need to sit down at a table and hammer out a real solution that takes everyone’s needs into account. It needs to be done with discretion and rationality, not with the passion of the moment. Overly emotional people make terrible decisions.
It’s pretty safe to say that no one is really firing on all their mental cylinders right now. Police brutality is a massive problem. So is racism. But so is the way we treat police officers. The profession has one of the highest suicide rates in the country. I’ve read a few of the police Ask Me Anything threads from police during the protests– there’s a lot of stress from putting in massive amounts of overtime, sleep deprivation is common, etc. Add to that, dealing with the whole COVID trauma like the rest of us… It’s not pretty.
We as a society need to have an open conversation where we really hear what each of us is saying. That’s never going to happen when emotions flare up. We all collectively need to take a step back and calm down. Then, just listen. Otherwise, nothing’s going to be solved in a constructive way.
The city budget has already been approved, so these discussions aren’t for the purpose of rushing into anything. City council can’t make any big decisions this summer anyway. The agenda for the next set of meetings is already decided, and full. There is also council’s summer break.
A Concord resident needs to take a proposal to the city to fly the “Thin Blue Line” flag over the city! I would but I do need live in Concord.