PHOENIX — A House panel voted Monday to ask voters to bar cities from cutting funding for police and sheriffs or risk losing state aid.
Rep. Walt Blackman, R-Snowflake, said the move is designed to blunt — and outright prohibit — calls to “defund the police’’ and instead use some of the money on alternatives to sworn officers. He said experiments like that in places such as Seattle, Minneapolis and Washington, D.C., have pushed crime rates sharply higher.
Closer to home, there have been council debates in Phoenix and some other cities about whether it makes sense to keep putting more and more money into law enforcement, especially in the wake of the killing of civilians by law enforcement officers.
Blackman’s House Bill 2624 would do more than prevent funding cuts. It would require cities, towns and counties to increase police budgets annually to account for inflation and population growth.
The state treasurer would withhold state aid for communities that failed to hit their targets, under the measure, which now needs the votes of the full House and, eventually, the Senate.votes of the full House and, eventually, the Senate.
Blackman linked approval to House Concurrent Resolution 2028, also approved by the committee, which would amend the Arizona Constitution to include the new spending requirements. That would give the last word to voters in November.
No one spoke against either measure.
But Rep. Daniel Hernandez, D-Tucson, said he wants to be sure the measures do not hobble smaller cities and counties which, faced with mandatory increases in law enforcement spending — money that would have to be raised from local taxpayers — so they aren’t forced to cut services elsewhere.
“This bill allows our law enforcement officers to keep our communities safe by not defunding the police,’’ Blackman said, citing statistics from elsewhere. “Defund the police is a deadly mistake.’’
Blackman, who is African American, said this isn’t a racial issue pitting the white majority against Black and brown communities.
“The perception is that those communities, in some cases, want police to be defunded,’’ he said. “I would tell you there is nothing further from the truth on that.”
He said minority residents in places like Detroit want more officers to provide public safety and protect against drug trafficking.
The measures drew support from Pinal County Sheriff Mark Lamb. He said the issue goes beyond whether he gets enough money from county supervisors.
“As the sheriff I’m in charge of the entire county,’’ Lamb told lawmakers. But without the resources to patrol everywhere, he said he relies on the cities and towns to take the lead in their own communities.
“It’s going to save our communities, keep our communities safe,’’ he said. “And it helps me as a sheriff.’’
Kevin DeMenna, lobbyist for Support Our Law Enforcement, said the measure and the spending increases would be mandatory. He said that even charter cities would not have the option, if this becomes part of the Arizona Constitution, to decide that some funds could be better spent on alternatives such as mental health workers.
