BOSTON (WHDH) - Massachusetts U.S. Attorney Andrew Lelling said calls to defund the police are “frankly ridiculous,” adding that they need their budgets to keep crime rates down.
“I’m a little alarmed about some of the recent rhetoric about defunding the police,” he said during a press conference Tuesday regarding the arrests of more than 30 Boston-based gang members.
Lelling added that he is not opposed to police reform but that “these calls to literally defund urban policing I think are frankly ridiculous.”
He says police departments have made “enormous” strides over the past 20 to 30 years in the quality and professionalism of policing, and that crime rates are historically low in cities nationwide, with some exceptions.
“The way you maintain that level of peace and safety on the streets is you fund your police departments, you don’t defund them,” Lelling continued. “Taking money away from police departments because of sort of a vague, unanalyzed accusation that all police departments are systemically racist I think is misguided.”
He finished with saying that adding funding to other programs that help the community is a great idea.
Calls to defund the police broke out in Boston and across the country following the death of George Floyd. Boston Mayor Martin Walsh took action, announcing Monday in his revised, recommended Fiscal Year 2021 budget that $12 million of the Boston Police Department’s overtime budget would be reallocated to other community programs.
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