U.S. Police Budgets Up 14% Since 2019 as Staffing Remains 5% Below 2020 Highs

A recent social media post by Deva Hazarika has highlighted a critical distinction in the ongoing public discourse surrounding law enforcement, contrasting police budget increases with persistent staffing challenges. Hazarika's tweet commented on a public figure's (referred to as "Marc") potential misstatement, suggesting "re-staff" was intended instead of "re-fund," noting, > "I’m sure this was an innocent mistake and Marc meant to type re-staff instead of re-fund, since I assume he knows the police budget has kept increasing over time and he’s showing a staffing graph not a budget graph."

Indeed, police budgets in major U.S. cities have seen significant increases in recent years. According to reports from the Center for Popular Democracy and Brookings, 90% of the 50 largest U.S. cities increased their police budgets between 2019 and 2024, with a median rise of 14%. This trend defies earlier calls to "defund the police" and reflects a renewed focus on public safety amid evolving crime rates.

Despite the financial injections, police staffing levels present a more complex picture. A July 2025 survey by the Police Executive Research Forum (PERF) indicated that while sworn staffing increased slightly by 0.4% in 2024, overall numbers remain 5.2% lower than they were on January 1, 2020. This suggests that while departments are actively hiring, they are still struggling to reach pre-pandemic staffing levels.

Hiring efforts have intensified, with the total number of sworn hirings among respondents now above 2019 levels, and agencies are implementing various strategies to attract recruits. These include lowering education standards, offering substantial signing bonuses, and increasing starting salaries. However, resignations continue to be higher than pre-2020 figures, contributing to the ongoing struggle to maintain adequate force numbers.

The disparity between rising budgets and lagging staffing underscores the challenges law enforcement agencies face in recruitment and retention. This situation has led some communities to increasingly rely on private security to fill service gaps, further complicating the landscape of public safety provision across the nation.