Conducting its annual budget hearings, the Rochester City Council on Tuesday questioned Mayor Lovely Warren about a $4.5 million reduction in police department funding in her 2021 city budget.
The mayor says this doesn’t mean she’ll be taking officers off the streets at a time of acknowledged high crime, which has stretched RPD staffing. The mayor said most of the cuts are being made by moving programs such as Victims Assistance out of the Public Safety budget and into other departments. She said there should be no reduction in officers on the street.
Earlier this year, Warren spoke of reducing patrol officers within five to ten years, but now says the surge in crime has put that idea on hold.