D.C. Spent $2.5 Million in Pandemic Relief Funds on Parking Cops

Pandemic funds used to hire parking cops, pay for prisons, build hotels. At a time when many residents were struggling due to job losses and loss of business, the District of Columbia ramped up efforts to wring money out of them—and spent federal pandemic aid to do so.

The city spent $2.5 million in federal relief funds to hire more parking cops, according to new reporting from the Associated Press.

Alas, D.C. is far from the only jurisdiction that used money meant to help people to police them instead.

For instance, the city of Los Angeles received $639,450,464 from the American Rescue Plan last year and spent 50 percent of it on Los Angeles Police Department payroll, according to Kenneth Meija, an accountant running for L.A. Comptroller.

In cities around the country, pandemic relief funds went to either ordinary police costs or to increase policing capabilities—sometimes in questionable ways.

“Albuquerque spent $3 million on a gunshot tracking system that isn’t actually effective,” notes Mic. “Honolulu bought its cops a $150,000 robot dog to monitor unhoused populations. In Wisconsin, Republican lawmakers pushed to use federal funds to create $5,000 signing bonuses to recruit new officers.”- READ MORE