Katko on Fox News: Rising Crime Directly Linked to Defunding Police

WASHINGTON, DC – Rep. John Katko (R-NY), Ranking Member of the House Committee on Homeland Security, joined Sunday Night in America with Trey Gowdy on Fox News to discuss the consequences of major cities defunding the police.

Click here to watch.

Highlights:

Profound Problems: “Last week, in my capacity as head of the Homeland Security Committee for Republicans, I went to New York City and had a roundtable discussion with law enforcement at all levels in the area, and it was unbelievable how profound the problems are in New York City, and they were directly attributed to two things. Number one, they defunded the police department in New York City by one sixth, cutting $1 billion from a police department that is charged with protecting the number one terrorist target in the world, New York City. The second thing they told me was that the laws that are being passed like bail reform are hampering their ability to do their job. It’s like one-two punch that has really caused a catastrophic rise in crime rates in New York City.”

Unbelievable Rise In Crime: “In New York City since they defunded police, shootings are up dramatically. Between now and the end of the year, they expect at least 1,000 more people to be shot in New York City. 97% of the shooting victims are the very people they think they’re trying to help – minorities. Nine out of 10 individuals arrested with a gun are out on the street nearly instantly. 50% of people who are charged with shooting someone are out on the street within a day. Those are the types of things that are leading to an unbelievable crime rate.”

Sacrificing Proactive Measures: “Proactive policing, like going after illegal gun traffickers, is the first thing that’s sacrificed when you don’t have funding because you’re putting out fires all over the city, instead of going after the hard criminals.”

Need More Cops On The Street: “I think we could help state and local governments by providing more funding. COPS Grants that pay for more cops on the street are a good example, but have ties with that and say look, we’ll give you this money but your police department has to meet national accreditation standards. We need to get more cops on the street, they need to be better trained and you can’t do that without funding. I’m perfectly willing to advocate for more funding for police at the federal level to help supplement the budget so long as the locals don’t defund police and are committed to making them better.”

Missing The Mark: “President Biden with his tired old rhetoric on guns completely misses the mark. Instead of defunding police, we need to refund police and get them back into communities, especially with respect to community policing. He’s not proposing any of that, he’s just bringing up tired old Democratic lines that aren’t working.”

According to recent media reports, after gutting the NYPD’s budget and hamstringing their ability to do their job, Mayor De Blasio announced plans to add 50 more police officers to Times Square, after a second innocent bystander was shot in the area in only several weeks. 

Our question for De Blasio—where do you think this ‘flood’ of cops is going to come from? NYPD is down 500 detectives due to budget constraints. The city’s reckless laws have emboldened criminals who know they will often be released and back on the streets just hours after being arrested.

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