NYC City Council Votes to Shift $1 Billion Away From Police Force

New York City officials on Tuesday agreed to a grim coronavirus-era budget that will sharply curtail municipal services, impose a hiring freeze and, in a move meant to placate calls to defund the police, shift roughly $1 billion from the Police Department.

The $88.1 billion budget reflected the economic shutdown that followed the outbreak, causing a $9 billion revenue shortfall that forced the city to make drastic across-the-board spending cuts.

But the virus was not the only external factor that affected the budget.

The protests that followed the police killing...

As calls to defund the police grow louder around the country, New York City officials agreed on a budget that shifts roughly $1 billion from the police department, but advocates and lawmakers say the change doesn't go far enough.

The city council said in a statement Tuesday that the city's 2021 budget, totaling more than $88 billion, "reduces police spending and shrinks NYPD's footprint." The cuts came as the city is grappling with losing $9 billion in revenue amid the coronavirus pandemic.

The budget cuts nearly $484 million from the...