“Defund the police, Invest in our community!“ by The Black Rose Federation

UW Seattle students pay for UWPD as part of the services of the Office of Student Life.

UWPD spends $8 million per year of the Office of Student Life budget.

UWPD’s annual budget is more than $8 million of the UW Seattle’s Office of Student life per year. This figure does not include security for Harborview Medical Center, UW Bothell campus security or UW Tacoma campus security. (Neither Bothell nor Tacoma have armed police departments.)

For the four years we have information, we know that UWPD overspent its budget allocation (2015, 2016, 2017, 2018). Every time UWPD overspends its budget, the police get more funding.

UWPD’s budget increased by 40% in less than ten years.

Why has UWPD’s budget increased so much? We don’t know, but it’s not tied to crime prevention or response.

UWPD is going into a budget crisis with $10 million dollars.

As of April 2020 (for the biennium budget ending June 2021), UWPD had $10 million dollars, of which only $3 million is allocated to salaries. This leaves at least $6 million usually allocated to special events and overtime that UW can shift to urgent needs: culturally competent mental health resources for students, building up Campus Safety with non-police responses and internal grant funding for BIPOC students and faculty.