Cook County Board to vote on symbolic resolution to shift money from law enforcement in wake of ‘defund’ movements
The Cook County Board of Commissioners is set to pass a symbolic resolution Thursday that supports diverting money from policing in the wake of nationwide protests demanding police budgets be defunded.
The Justice for Black Lives resolution says in order to mitigate harm from law enforcement that “historically increased unaccountable violence inflicted on Black and Brown communities,” the county should “redirect funds from policing and incarceration to public services not administered by law enforcement that promote community health and safety equitably.”
All but one of the 17 commissioners signed on to co-sponsor it, sending the legislation from the criminal justice committee to the board for a likely yes vote Thursday.
Introduced by Commissioner Brandon Johnson, D-Chicago, the legislation is nonbinding but would guide deliberations on the upcoming 2021 budget as thousands have taken to Chicago’s streets this summer to rally and march for shifting money from police and jail budgets and reallocating it to social services.
They join movements across America to reimagine law enforcement in response to the police killing of George Floyd, a Black man who died after gasping “I can’t breathe” as a white Minneapolis police officer knelt on his neck.
“A hundred years from now, someone is going to look back at this moment and they’ll judge this moment. And the question will be, did we do everything in our power to stand up to systemic racism? Or did we flinch?” Johnson said during the Monday criminal justice committee meeting. “Cook County must chart a new course and prioritize the lives of Black residents.”
The resolution does not specify how much money should be redirected, and the county board does not have control over police departments in municipalities including Chicago, the largest U.S. city that hasn’t promised to move funds away from its policing budget.
But the board does decide the budgets of the courts system and Cook County sheriff’s office, which includes Cook County Jail — another target that Chicago activists have sought to defund.
Neither Mayor Lori Lightfoot nor Gov. J.B. Pritzker have backed the defunding police movement, but Cook County President Toni Preckwinkle has shown support for reallocating money from policing into other social services. She told the Tribune in June that she was “grateful” to see Johnson’s resolution and believes it is better intended to guide conversations around defunding the incarceration system specifically.
“The tremendous investments we make are not in the relatively modest sheriff’s police, they’re in the jail,” Preckwinkle said. “We have to try to move resources to community-based organizations that are doing the important work of keeping people out of the jail.”
Cook County Sheriff Tom Dart has responded to calls to defund his office by saying he has sought to increase services such as mental health, but further budget slashes would strain those resources.
“People are looking for change. The defunding part of it, I can’t for the life of me think of how that makes any sense,” Dart said Wednesday during a virtual City Club of Chicago speech. “Now, reinventing, changing the way we operate, that makes a lot of sense. … The defund folks, they’re misplaced because I always said, ‘OK well then what’s your solution? What are you going to do once you defund the police?’ ”
The sheriff’s office already faces a potential $90 million cut to meet a 2021 budget target, tugging it down to $545 million, after county budget officials recalibrated fiscal goals to account for projected shortfalls spurred by the coronavirus pandemic. During a finance committee meeting last week, Dart said he anticipates another 300 personnel cuts to meet the $90 million goal, which he said is “very difficult.”
More than 20% of Cook County’s $6.2 billion budget this year goes toward public safety, the second-highest expenditure following the health fund. That public safety fund includes the sheriff’s office, which in addition to running Cook County Jail polices unincorporated Cook County and fills in for cash-strapped suburban agencies.
Since Dart became sheriff in 2007, his office’s budget has grown by more than one-quarter, adjusted for inflation, despite the jail population dwindling by more than half. However, Dart said he has also reduced staff by about 800, mostly by reducing the number of deputies and correctional officers.
During Monday’s meeting, almost all commissioners expressed the time had come for shifting policing and incarceration funds to other areas of Cook County’s budget. Commissioner Stanley Moore, D-Chicago, criminal justice committee chairman, said the legislation would be the first in many actions under the committee to address “historic injustices” in Cook County.
Commissioner Sean Morrison, R-Palos Park, was the sole no vote because of what he said was “bombastic language” to “unfairly castigate” law enforcement. He read off statistics of Chicago’s uptick in shootings this summer after discussing the need for law enforcement support.
To that, Johnson replied: “We often asked ourselves, what are the side effects of this particular thing we’re going to do? And can I talk to you just a couple of minutes about the side effects of being a Black man? … Do you understand the side effects of being a Black man in Cook County in America have left many people in my generation in despair?”
The Rev. Jesse Jackson, civil rights leader and founder of the Rainbow/PUSH Coalition, was one of over 300 people who testified in favor of the resolution.
“The resolution serves as a step toward the long-needed reprioritization of our public resources away from racist systems of policing and incarceration,” Jackson wrote in testimony given at Thursday’s meeting. “It is incumbent on the leadership of Cook County to heed that call to transform the system of policing and incarceration that has destroyed so many Black lives and to invest in Black neighborhoods.”
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