Comments at Arlington County Budget Hearing, March 26, 2026.
In reviewing the County Manager’s FY 2027 budget, one number stands out, $10.6 million in proposed cuts, including funds for one library, one athletic program and 56 FTEs. This number corresponds exactly with $10.6 million in increased funding for the Police and Fire Departments (Budget Overview, pp. 4, 22).
Police salaries are increased by 11.4 percent and fire department salaries by 10.7 percent while unionized employee salaries are increased by 3.5 percent (Budget, p. 13), as compared with an inflation rate of 2.7 percent.
The County Manager justifies the pay differential as follows:
“The higher proposed rate of increases for Police and Fire is essential to complete hiring to fill vacancies in each department. Over the past few years, overtime costs . . . have increased to impractical levels. With the proposed wage increases, along with a successful lateral hiring program, progress will continue bringing both departments closer to full staffing levels.”
While this may explain why increases in Police and Fire salaries necessitate cuts elsewhere in the budget, it’s clearly unfair.
The blame lies not with the police department, which is popular with most County residents. In fact a 2022 Resident Satisfaction Survey indicated 70 percent approval with police services.
The blame lies with the County Board for rolling over to the Defund the Police movement. Defund the Police targeted police departments all over the country for major funding cuts. The result according to a 2023 academic report was a dramatic increase in crime in major cities between 2019 and 2022 (“From defunding to refunding police”, Table 2).
While Arlington County did not explicitly cut the police budget (Budget, p. 475), it defunded ACPD indirectly by freezing a total of 39 authorized positions to date (ACPD Work Session, 3/19/25, p. 4). This coupled with attrition, has resulted in an 18 percent vacancy rate. Out of 374 authorized sworn officer positions, Arlington had filled only 307 of them as of March, 2026 (ACPD Work Session, 3/19/25, p. 18).This situation is concerning since Arlington’s crime statistics indicate an increase in aggravated assaults of 5.5 percent in 2025 (ACPD Work Session, 3/19/25, p. 9).
Had Arlington fully staffed its police department following the George Floyd riots, it would not now find itself outbidding neighboring jurisdictions to get recruits and proposing lower pay raises for other bargaining units. The irony is that Defund the Police has resulted in outsized police budgets for jurisdictions that rolled over to its demands.