Many California cities used their COVID relief money to bolster their police forces, according to a report by The Guardian. The American Rescue Plan allocated $350 billion to state and local governments through the Coronavirus State and Local Fiscal Recovery Funds program/
The Treasury Department said the money can replace lost public sector revenue, respond to the far-reaching public health and negative economic impacts of the pandemic, provide premium pay for essential workers, and invest in water, sewer, and broadband infrastructure.
Some of California's largest cities awarded a large portion of their funds to law enforcement agencies. For example, San Francisco was given $312 million and gave $153 million to the police and $41 million to the sheriff's office, which made up 62% of the funds. Los Angeles spent around 50% of the COVID-relief money on the police. While Long Beach didn't have a full breakdown of how their money was spent, officials said that a majority of the money went to the police.
In Fresno, officials used the majority of their COVID-relief funds on the police and paying the salaries of city employees. The amount the city spent on police was double what officials allocated for "COVID testing, contact tracing, small business grants, childcare vouchers, transitional housing, and small business grants combined."
City officials in Oakland and Anaheim admitted that they used the money as "revenue replacement" and allocated the relief money to the general fund.
Authorities have defended their decisions to use the money to bolster their police, claiming that it was the funds were meant for. They said that the pandemic forced them to pay higher overtime costs and that the money prevented potential layoffs that would have made enforcing COVID policies more difficult.
Not everybody is supportive of the money being used on the police.
"It was called the 'American Rescue Plan,' but you're telling me that what needed to be rescued was the police department?" said Stephen "Cue" Jn-Marie, a pastor and activist at Skid Row in LA. "The city's kneejerk reaction is always to use law enforcement to respond to everything … and the police forces keep getting larger."