At the height of the protests sparked by the murder of George Floyd at the hands of Minneapolis police officer Derek Chauvin last year, local New York City activists took aim at the police department budget, arguing the city would be safer by redirecting NYPD funding into investments in education, mental health services, housing and food support. They noted that the NYPD’s budget ballooned to about $11 billion this past fiscal year, a 30% increase over the last decade, though that hasn’t translated to a steady decrease in violent crime.

The slogan “defund the police” became the rallying cry, and some activists even camped in the public plaza outside of the mayor’s office demanding more drastic cuts to the NYPD’s budget. And now the candidates running for de Blasio's seat are facing the question: would you defund the police?

Several mayoral candidates initially embraced the terminology "defund the police," noted the NY Times, but then backed away in more recent months as their campaigns heated up. Other candidates have attempted a tightrope walk between centrist constituencies and the more progressive flank of the Democratic Party. And just one candidate in the race still openly uses the word “defund” to describe her candidacy and platform, though several others have pledged budget cuts using words like reallocating, redirecting, or reinvesting, instead of the now polarizing word “defund.”

Read more: Where Do Mayoral Candidates Stand On The Future Of Policing?

Policing and public safety have been front and center in the mayoral race, with a continued rise in shootings and murders, as well as a rise in anti-Asian hate crimes. Recent polling found crime and violence were at the top of voters' minds, right after handling the COVID-19 pandemic. At the same time, more police killings across the country have fueled activists’ resolve to press for more radical police reform.

The Democratic contenders for mayor generally fall into three buckets: those who don’t want to decrease the NYPD budget, candidates who do want to decrease the budget but haven’t said by how much, and candidates who have made specific monetary commitments to reducing the police department's footprint. Here’s where they stand:

Candidates Who Don’t Want To Decrease NYPD Funding

Eric Adams

While Adams has said he wants to divert $500 million in existing NYPD spending to fully fund the city’s crisis management system that coordinates between community groups, violence interrupters and hospitals, the candidate has not said he wants to reduce the department’s budget overall. Asked about his position on reducing the NYPD’s budget at a recent forum, Adams said, “We have an over-proliferation of guns in our city. We have a real gang crisis.” He’s focused his campaign in recent weeks around the surge in gun violence, calling for more spot searches for trafficked guns and for the city to bring back the anti-crime task force that disbanded last year.

Kathryn Garcia

Garcia does not want to decrease the police department’s budget. She wants to add mental health first responders and increase funding for CURE violence groups.

Andrew Yang

Yang does not want to decrease the NYPD’s budget. He says he wants to reorganize the department and increase funding for mental health response. When asked at a recent press conference about his position on defunding the NYPD, the candidate said, “There are a lot of ways we can help address these issues over time and I’m excited to get started.”

Candidates Who Have Made Specific Monetary Commitments To Cut The NYPD’s Budget

Art Chang

Chang calls for an initial $1.3 billion dollar cut to the NYPD’s budget by reducing the number of uniformed officers and civilian employees, halting the next cadet class and capital expenditures, and reducing increases in fringe benefits. He would make investments in the Civilian Complaint Review board and increase staffing on mobile response teams trained to de-escalate mental health crises.

Shaun Donovan

Through a spokesperson, Donovan pledged to redirect $1 billion from the NYPD over four years. Donovan says the funds would be put towards public safety, job training, violence interruption and restorative justice efforts.

Aaron Foldenauer

Foldenauer said he would decrease the NYPD budget by $560 million, in line with his larger policy of decreasing the city budget by 10 percent overall.

Dianne Morales

Morales plans to slash the NYPD’s annual budget by $3 billion in order to fund a “Community First Responders Department” which would respond to mental health, homelessness and drug use issues. She says she would remove police from schools, traffic enforcement and homeless outreach and invest more in cure violence groups. “I’m the only candidate in this race that’s called for defunding and that’s what I mean,” she said at a police reform forum Thursday night.

Scott Stringer

Stringer has promised a $275 million cut to the police budget each year in his first term for a total of $1.1 billion dollar reduction in spending, though he’s distanced himself from calls to defund the police -- and the specific pledge to cut the budget is included in documents on the city comptroller site, not his campaign website. To reduce the police budget, he would disband the Strategic Response Group and the Vice Squad, remove police from traffic enforcement, reduce the police fleet, take 911 calls away from the NYPD and cap the overtime budget. Stringer says he would use the funds to pay for violence interruption programs, youth jobs, internships among other initiatives.

Jocelyn Taylor

Taylor supports decreasing the police budget by $1 billion and using those funds for education, homeless services, mental health services, programs for the elderly and community based groups, and direct aid to essential workers and undocumented New Yorkers.

Maya Wiley

Wiley says she would redirect $1 billion from the NYPD’s budget to fund initiatives like community care centers, which would provide childcare, elder care, job training, events and other services. She promises to expand cure violence programs and fund employment opportunities in neighborhoods hardest hit by gun violence. While Wiley regularly comments on her commitment to reduce the police budget by $1 billion, the pledge isn’t explicitly spelled out on her campaign website.

Candidates Who Support Some Divestment From Police But Haven’t Said How Much

Ray McGuire

McGuire talks about reallocation of funding from the NYPD, though he’s repeatedly declined to set a specific dollar amount. He says he would take aim at the growth in administrative and communication costs, which represent the largest growth in the police budget. He said he would audit the $1.2 billion increase in the NYPD operating budget over the last decade and potentially redirect some of that funding towards an emergency 24/7 social services response to emergencies.

Issac Wright Jr.

Wright says he supports a “reallocation of the bloated budget” to reinvest in education, community services and mental health services, but declines to specify an amount. His campaign did not respond to a request for comment.

Paperboy Prince

Wants to abolish the police, presumably slashing the NYPD’s budget to $0.

UPDATE: This story has been updated to include Aaron Foldenauer's position.

This is part of our One Issue Explainer series, where we break down where mayoral candidates stand on issues concerning New Yorkers. What do you want to hear about? Email us at [email protected] (subject line: One Issue Explainer).