> The current MPD budget this year is $526,000,000.

Learn more about the MPD budget and why it should be defunded at the DC Defund MPD coalition

> In 2020 The DC Council rejected Mayor Bowser’s proposed increase to the Metropolitan Police Department’s FY21 budget; however, it didn’t cut any of its existing funding.

> Remaining at its half billion dollar budget did not result in any reduction in the number of officers. The only officers MPD has lost has been from officers voluntarily leaving.

> Reduced funding does not necessarily mean reduced police capacity. Expansion of the MPD Cadet Program illustrates how even reductions to the budget doesn’t mean MPD is in any way defunded if it still results in more cops who are just paid less.

> The approved 2023 budget aims to hire 347 more officers, contributing to Mayor Bowser’s goal of 4000 MPD officers, with no explanation for why 4000 officers would help safety.

> DC spends more per capita on its police than any other major US city (this does not include additional spending on the many federal law enforcement agencies located in DC).

> 90 percent of MPD’s budget is for salaries and benefits.

> A significant portion of MPD’s operating budget includes overtime pay, including huge amounts of overtime pay for policing protests, MPD uses public money to violently suppress DC residents exercising their first amendment rights.

> Many of the top MPD overtime earners made more than $300,000 total salary in 2020. That’s more than seven times the median household income of Black DC residents.