On Thursday, Philadelphia Mayor Jim Kenney will deliver his seventh budget address. Of all of the city's various departments, agencies and projects, one budget line is going to loom larger than any other: the cost of funding the Philadelphia Police Department.
In Philadelphia, calls to "defund the police" led to budget gymnastics last year. The Kenney administration, in an effort to avoid appearing to increase the Police Department's budget, included new police investments in the budgets of other departments. That technically kept overall direct police funding mostly unchanged last year at $729 million.
Since then, Philadelphia has recorded the worst year for homicides on record. The violence has not subsided in 2022 — nor have concerns about the excessive use of force by police. Earlier this month, police shot and killed 12-year-old Thomas "TJ" Siderio, leading Commissioner Danielle Outlaw to fire the officer who shot the child.
