Part of our mission of the Public Safety Review Committee is to advise the Mayor and Common Council on matters related to police and fire department budgets. Before COVID-19, the committee decided to make feedback about the police department’s budget a high priority for this year. With recent calls to defund the police and packed agendas on policing reform, we formed a subcommittee to assist the community, Mayor and Common Council in having a robust discussion about the police department budget. A policy subcommittee and OIR recommendations subcommittee were also formed.

The budget subcommittee is seeking public input on the compiled report to provide a roadmap to the police department budget before the report is finalized. “We have been listening to the public when crafting our questions and prioritizing which areas of the budget to focus on. However, direct public input is vital to the completion of this report. We hope that this will give many the opportunity to redefine and reimagine public safety”, said Matthew Mitnick, PSRC Budget Subcommittee Chairperson.

We are asking the community several questions:

1. What priorities or recommendations would you make to the police budget?
2. Are you comfortable with the police department’s spending and resource allocation?
3. What other questions would you like to see answered in the report?

The full PSRC will get an update on the report at its September 30th meeting at 5:00pm and members of the subcommittee are asking the full PSRC to attend the subcommittee public hearing on Thursday September 24th, 6:00pm

The public can participate in the following ways:

• Give input via zoom by registering at https://www.cityofmadison.com/clerk/meeting-schedule/watch-meetings-online.
• Speak at the meeting or to observe by filling out information at https://www.cityofmadison.com/clerk/meeting-schedule/watch-meetings-online.
• Send feedback to the committee at pdpsrc@cityofmadison.com

The full report is available at: https://madison.legistar.com/LegislationDetail.aspx?ID=4601255&GUID=C616C0F4-E94F-4EC1-B377-CF0CEAE3FE4A