The Los Angeles Unified School Board has voted to reduce the budget for the district's police force by $25 million—a 35% cut.
The Los Angeles Daily News reports that the 4-to-3 board vote took place Tuesday night following hours of public testimony by activists and students supporting the Black Lives Matter movement and by parents and officers who spoke in favor of the police team.
The roughly $25 million coming out of the Los Angeles School Police Department would go toward supporting African American student achievement, gang-reduction programs and investments in counselors and safety aids.
The reduction to the department’s funds will mean elimination of roughly 65 officer jobs and other reductions in services, officials say.
The budget cut comes one week after the school board rejected a proposal to slash the district police budget by 90%.
[LAST MONTH: Los Angeles board rejects proposal to shrink school police budget]
The board heard hours of public testimony, starting in the morning portion of a meeting that would stretch deep into the night. The final decision on the matter took place at 10:30 p.m.
The discussion Tuesday first centered on an amendment proposed by Board Member Monica Garcia to cut in half the police department’s $70 million budget.
“I offer this amendment to acknowledge we are living in a moment in the movement for civil rights,” Garcia says, “People are rising up and demanding of themselves something different.”
Garcia’s amendment was replaced ultimately by one from Board Member Jackie Goldberg that called for cutting $25 million from the school police budget.
For now, school district police officers will be removed from campus and out of uniform until the board hears from the superintendent’s task force about the best use for school police.
As one of the largest independent school police departments in the nation, the Los Angeles Unified squad employs 366 sworn officers and 95 non-sworn officers with a budget of roughly $70 million.
