[TRU Research] Cutting the cops

[Katie Wilson]

Thanks Stephen! For starters it would be useful to have a spreadsheet with just the headline data corresponding to that graph: annual dollars for police, housing, and human services, for each year from 2010 through 2020. That way, in addition to the visualization, we can say things like “the human services budget fell X% from 2010 to 2012, and it didn’t recover to 2010 levels till 2017 (or whatever) and by 2019 it had only grown by Y% since 2010, adjusted for inflation…” etc. (I’m assuming this data is not inflation-adjusted btw, but it would be good to confirm that.)

> On Jun 6, 2020, at 3:41 PM, Stephen DeSanto <rachidian at gmail.com> wrote:
> 
> Hi Katie. I found it a little easier to go to the data source here: https://data.seattle.gov/dataset/City-of-Seattle-Operating-Budget/8u2j-imqx <https://data.seattle.gov/dataset/City-of-Seattle-Operating-Budget/8u2j-imqx>
> 
> I also found their data visualization tool difficult to work with (and it wouldn't let me save my work), but maybe we can export the data to a different environment (e.g. Tableau, python) to make it easier to sort through the budget data.
> 
> <image.png>
> 
> The raw numbers live in the data set linked above. I was able to get them to show up in the graph, though it's hard to read.
> 
> As far as a more detailed breakdown of how money is being spent, you might have to be a CM to get answers, if at all: https://twitter.com/eyesonthestorm/status/1269061348144513024 <https://twitter.com/eyesonthestorm/status/1269061348144513024>
> 
> Let me know if there's something specific you'd like from the data set and I'll see if I can pull it out.
> 
> 
> 
> On Fri, Jun 5, 2020 at 8:54 PM Katie Wilson <katie at transitriders.org <mailto:katie at transitriders.org>> wrote:
> Just to give an example: After a few minutes poking around in the site I was able to get this graph, showing how the police budget didn’t get cut during the great recession, whereas human services and housing did, and human services in particular took a long time to recover to 2010 levels, whereas the police budget just kept going up (presumably much faster than inflation).
> 
> But I can’t figure out easily how to get the data set so that I can see the actual numbers. I know you can download all the data on the site but it’s not immediately obvious to me how to isolate just the data for this graph.
> 
> 
> <Screen Shot 2020-06-05 at 8.49.43 PM.png>
> 
>> On Jun 5, 2020, at 8:48 PM, Katie Wilson <katie at transitriders.org <mailto:katie at transitriders.org>> wrote:
>> 
>> Hey data & research folks,
>> 
>> Anyone want to do some digging into the police budget?
>> 
>> https://openbudget.seattle.gov/#!/year/default <https://openbudget.seattle.gov/#!/year/default>
>> 
>> I’m in touch with some of the people who are thinking seriously about how to cut the police budget & we have a chance to help out with this in a number of ways. 
>> 
>> Katie Wilson
>> General Secretary
>> Transit Riders Union
>> https://transitriders.org <https://transitriders.org/>
>> 206-781-7204
>> 
>> The Transit Riders Union is a democratic organization of working and poor people, including students, seniors, and people with disabilities, taking control over our own lives, and building up the power we need to change society for the good of humanity and of the planet. We will fight to preserve, expand, and improve the public transportation system in Seattle and beyond, so that every human being has access to safe, affordable, and reliable public transit.
>> 
>> 
> 
> 

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