The study shows that there are hidden funding channels for police departments

Five years ago, thanks to a federal program, which distributes surplus military equipment to the local police, the Bridgeport acquired a heavy boredom vehicle, able to understand a mine explosion. Other places like Bristol, Hartford, New London and Vermative also found one.

As Local media published city-by-city list Night vision glasses, rifles, thermal scopes, underwater sound appliances, reconnaissance cameras, and other armored vehicles acquired under the program, Connecticut MLAs voted then Some ban the acquisition of military goods,

In the world of George Floid, when citizens openly question the use of the police force and the authorities often find themselves an unwanted presence in the neighborhood, such as simple transparency, such as City-by-city listIt is paramount, a Uconn researcher says.

This is also the most in danger, as it introduces the “Police Finance Organization” the increasing amount of dark money in privacy and policing.

Sociologist Simon Yamwaki shutter, an assistant professor at UCNN says, “Police departments are funded by taxpayers on a large scale through the budget of the municipality, but we have found that the police have a lot of money, about which you do not control or control it as a voter or taxpayer.” “When you do not know what is happening in the police budget, the question raises the question for whom the police is working for. Is it a community that pays taxes or to someone else?”

Shuchter and researchers of Harvard University and the University of Chicago introduce the new concept of their police finance organizations paper“Social structure of private donations to police,” recently published Socius: sociological research for a dynamic world,

In this, they define such organizations only as private institutions that give resources to the police. These private institutions, however, are not subject to the same level of investigation in the form of police departments through independence requests and public annual reports.

In the large category of police finance organizations, they say that there are three small types: “Connector,” “Booster,” and “Haivans.”

Police connector are institutions that generally occur in major American cities and provide resources to many police departments, often serving as hubs between parts of private funding networks.

On the other hand, police boosters give only one department and their money is hyperlokal in raising and giving. However, the police haven, are organizations that work as a savings account for departments, namely, taking in private donations as deposited and withdrawing to departments on need or request.

“While police finance organizations seem to be fine at the marked price, what is interesting that people can give their own tax-cut gifts to police departments without an intermediary,” shutter. “So, it is curious as to why these organizations need to be present in the first place if people can only go to their local police department and write them a check. Why is there a need to be this additional organization in between?”

These organizations, they say, are often incorporated as non -profit organizations, and, as 501 (c) 3S, donor lists do not require disclosure, from where the knowledge of the people arising from funding is limited. Not only do they need to report their donors, they are not subject to independence-information laws, so a written request is also not known.

Around 1,000 police finance organization nationwide

Shachter says that the New York City Police Foundation, established in 1971, was the first major private organization to support the police, and even other people pop up for years, their popularity was slow to grow until 2015, when their number exploded.

Police philanthropists were not part of the study, Shachter notes, and they were not considered on police finance organizations because they are a function of police unions and work to support the officers, not general policing, ie equipment and training.

Using the information of guidstar Candids, shutters and other researchers, the keywords, “Sheriffs,” Law Enforcement, “and” Topper “received thousands of entries from tax filer names, mission statement, program achievements, expenditure details and addresses from” law enforcement, “and” tropper “.

They worked to win the dataset and the figure is 961 police finance organizations across the country, which, the shcha, data, the data has a conservative estimate based on various boundaries and the researchers of other obstacles hit.

According to the study, between 2014 and 2019, police finance organizations had a revenue of $ 480 million, of which $ 396 million, police haven, police connectors went to $ 56 million to $ 56 million and police booster to $ 28 million.

The average donation for a police shelter was $ 22,243-an oblivious number for a multimilian-dollar gifts, which Havens said that Havens often gave money to individual authorities, provided non-content gifts to departments, provided concessional purchase by departments, and offered free lodges by departments.

The study stated that the Havans exchanged $ 5 million among themselves through 80 individual donations, “the study has said in the study, creating a shadow network of internal financial exchange.

SHachter says that police finance organizations find all kinds of ways to pass support to departments, including donating to separate officials. If the gifts are less than $ 5,000 per officer, the donation is not required to disclose.

For example, in the Chicago Police Memorial Foundation 2020, the department was able to give 3,330 bulletproof waste and 1,720 waste cover, marking them to individual authorities, marking them for individual authorities, without reporting $ 1.47 million donations, marking them, marking them.

Two years ago in 2018, a separate organization, the Chicago Police Foundation, bought “Special Classes for CPD”, but what was not easily available for those classes, details about what is not surprising to Shachtar. The study stated that it was revealed to be a mistake.

“Most police departments and most of us studied organizations are using this money, whatever they want, going around any public process,” says shutters. “We don’t know what is being offered in these training. We just know that they are held and the police go to them.”

Gift from billionaire donors

From youth programming and defibrillator to shields and even a helicopter, Dan runs a gamal.

“Most gifts are very gentle, supporting the health and medical training of canine for the authorities, I think we all support and say that the public budget should be part of,” says the shutter. “But if you look at the amount running through these organizations, it seems far more nefarious. The most giving people have strong political agenda and are trying to have policy effects in different ways.”

The study researchers found three private donors who gave significant support.

Howard Buffett, son of billionaire Warren Buffett, gave the police finance organizations in Illinois, which was excluded to the Director of Illinois Law Enforcement Training and Standard Board on moral concerns.

In Arizona, the small buffett donated and became an active member of the aid team, making him directly reach the police and allowed him to develop a relationship with the US boundary patrol, according to the study.

Hedge Fund founder Sitadale Kenneth Griffin himself revealed gifts to police finance organizations, jointly offered $ 35 million to the Chicago Crime Lab University in 2018 and 2022, the study said that Griffin openly tied gifts for the Mayor, Gubernator and National Policy. Because the University of Chicago is a private institution, it did not have to disclose the gift.

The study stated that in 2016, the vocal supporters of law enforcement, billionaire Laura and John Arnold, are a pilot monitoring drone program through a police heaven through a pilot monitoring drone program, which has been said in the study. When the community came to know about the monitoring program, it was immediately discontinued.

There is no doubt, shutters say that large donors are using their gifts to influence local, state and national policy conversations.

“With this study, our goal is to take the first step to throw light on this area of ​​dark money and then try to make it more transparent. We will prefer for better reporting changes in IRS tax code, such as gifts to individual authorities. They should report that they should report, like other public authorities,” they say.

“In most cases, taxpayers and voters do not know that this is happening,” he continues. “The city councils do not even know, and if they do not know about these off-the-book line items, how can they make a budget properly? There are many ways that these organizations are deliberately avoiding transparency and it gives us the alarm.”