Mayor Kenney’s proposed budget increases spending for police and antiviolence programs. Here’s what it would do.

Mayor Jim Kenney on Thursday asked City Council to approve a $24 million increase in the police budget, an infusion of cash that would mainly pay for contractually obligated raises for officers.

That’s a modest 3% increase, though the mayor is also proposing a hike in spending on antiviolence initiatives as the city grapples with an ongoing gun violence crisis. More people were killed last year in Philadelphia than in at least 60 years, and the number of homicides so far in 2022 is continuing at a similarly troubling pace.

“The surge in gun violence that we’ve seen across the nation and here in Philadelphia is heartbreaking, it’s maddening, and it makes me as outraged as everyone else,” Kenney said during his budget address.

If passed, the budget would represent the first notable new investment in policing in the two years following the murder of George Floyd in Minneapolis, when a majority of City Council rejected a proposed increase to the police budget and the department was flat-funded.

But Wednesday, some in Council said Kenney’s plan doesn’t go far enough to combat the rise in shootings.

Councilmember Derek S. Green said he doesn’t “get that sense of urgency in reference to addressing the public safety crisis in our city.” His colleague Isaiah Thomas praised the increasing antiviolence spending but said “we need more” and asked the administration to invest in new programs for out-of-school youth.

And Council leaders have signaled that they would back a plan to divert more funding to the department to add 125 officers on top of its 6,380-member force, which is already struggling to fill hundreds of vacancies.

Taken together, the proposals set up what will likely be months of negotiations between the administration and Council leaders who back an increase, and progressive members who make up a powerful bloc in City Hall and have expressed skepticism that increasing the police budget will translate to a decline in shootings.

Some of their allies stood in the shadow of City Hall following the budget address and slammed any proposed increase in the police budget as providing only the “illusion of security.”

“We already know that cycle after cycle, the police budget is increasing,” said Nicolas O’Rourke, an organizer with the Working Families Party. “So is the homicide rate.”

Here’s a look at what the administration and Council are proposing:

The Police Department already has the largest budget of any city agency, and Kenney’s proposed increase would bring its total budget to $782 million in the fiscal year that begins July 1, more than the $758 million the city expects to spend on police this fiscal year.

That nearly $24 million bump is largely because of a new contract with the Fraternal Order of Police Lodge 5 that was agreed to last fall and grants officers raises of 3.5% in 2022 and 2023. The contract was expected to increase the police budget by $133 million over three years.

» READ MORE: Philly cops will get raises in their new contract. It’s a mixed bag for Kenney’s police reform hopes.

Of Kenney’s proposed $23.7 million increase, $21.3 million — or nearly 90% — is for salaries and personnel costs.

Kenney emphasized that his proposed budget includes more than $3 million in funding to “modernize” the department. That includes $2.7 million to upgrade police cell phones and laptops with applications that aid investigations, as well as $515,000 to improve the city’s forensics equipment, which police say could help them better track ballistics evidence and solve more crimes.

Police spending will decline in some other categories, as the city will not again pay out the one-time bonuses it provided last year. Every officer received a $1,500 bonus when the new FOP contract took effect, and the department also provided incentives for officers to get the coronavirus vaccine.

While the the Police Department would see a 3% budget increase under Kenney’s plan, his overall $5.61 billion city budget increases spending by 5.5%, and several other departments would would get more significant increases.

For example, the Streets Department’s $176 million budget would increase by about 17%, in part to fund paving projects and street sweeping. And the Free Library would see an 18% budget increase amounting to about $10 million in new funding.

Kenney’s budget would also increase funding for antiviolence programs, a major tenet of the budget the administration and Council agreed to last year.

Amid a historic rate of shootings, the city last year spent $155 million on antiviolence strategies, about $68 million of which was new funding for a handful of initiatives like jobs programs, after-school activities, and grants to community-based organizations. Much of the rest of that money funded other programs already in place or temporarily halted amid the pandemic.

» READ MORE: As Philly pledges renewed community anti-violence efforts, some advocates are asking: What took so long?

The administration says this year’s budget increases that $155 million to $184 million, an 18.5% increase.

Some of the new funds would expand programs that partner police with unarmed violence “interruptors” who identify people most likely to shoot or be shot and offer them services.

An additional $2 million would allow the city this summer to launch a pilot of a program modeled after READI Chicago — which similarly offers mental health services and job opportunities to men at risk for experiencing violence — and $1.5 million to fund two new “Community Evening Resource Centers,” which provide space for young people who are out after curfew.

The administration also plans to allocate $7.3 million to sustain its program testing Mobile Crisis Units, which are staffed by medical practitioners, not police, who respond to calls for people in crisis. The units are a top priority for progressives, who say the administration is slow-walking the program.

Two members of City Council — both considered likely 2023 mayoral candidates — have also put forth their own public safety plans aimed at bolstering the police force.

On Wednesday, Majority Leader Cherelle Parker released a plan that, among other investments in public-safety-related programming, would add 125 police officers. Among the five councilmembers who voiced support for her plan were Council President Darrell Clarke, Majority Whip Curtis Jones Jr., and Deputy Whip Mark Squilla.

It would cost more than $8 million to fund starting salaries and benefits packages for 125 police officers. But Parker says her plan would cost less than $5 million annually, assuming overtime costs decline as the department hires more officers.

The department already has about 400 vacancies amid a nationwide shortage of police recruits and a high level of retirements, and an additional 560 officers are off duty on injury claims.

In addition, Councilmember Derek Green on Thursday introduced a bill that would provide police recruits a $10,000 signing bonus, a move he says is modeled after similar offerings in other cities.

Inquirer staff writer Sean Collins Walsh contributed to this article.