How Corporations Secretly Fund The Police

Corporations are funnelling millions of unchecked dollars directly into overfunded police departments, in exchange for tax breaks, favors, and specific protections - y’know, just like the mafia, but if the mafia were an unaccountable paramilitary force.

Corporations are able to funnel that money through organizations called police foundations. Racial justice group Color Of Change just released a report about police foundations; and their role in police militarization, which is far worse than anyone thought.

Here’s how it works: Police foundations are technically “non-profits”, which makes donations to them tax-deductible. And unlike public city budgets, these donations are done behind closed doors — in most cases, they’re not required to disclose individual contributions.

As a result, police foundations serve as a private piggy bank for law enforcement to buy weapons and surveillance systems without explicit approval by elected officials or constituents. What does that look like in the real world? Well, let’s start with The New York City Police Foundation, which is the oldest police foundation in the country. They host galas and other events where corporate executives and city elites rub elbows with top police administrators and elected officials.

The NYC Police Foundation requires a $100,000 donation for a platinum-level sponsorship of its annual gala; in 2019 the foundation raised $5.5 million dollars from this single event. And in return for their donations, the NYPD gives special priority to those donors in addressing complaints or reported crimes.

For example the Motion Picture Association used their donations to the NYC Police Foundation to fund the NYPD’s trademark infringement unit, which makes undercover purchases of counterfeit CDs, DVDs, clothes and other goods, and has resulted in NYPD harassment and arrest of street vendors.

Essentially, the MPAA, a private corporation, was funding their own wing of the NYPD to tackle crimes that affect that company directly. In other parts of the country, police foundations have blatant control over their local governments. The Atlanta Police Foundation lobbied city council to turn a forest in Southeast Atlanta into an unprecedentedly massive training ground, called, “Cop City,” that would encompass over 85 NFL football fields worth of land, and be an environmental disaster that was opposed by an overwhelming majority of Atlanta residents. 

Under the plan, The City of Atlanta would lease 381-acres of forest land to the Atlanta Police Foundation for $10 a year for up to 50 years. Why? Because if city council members stand up to the police, APD and its union fight to make sure those elected officials lose their seats, making them totally unaccountable. And as communities across the nation demand critical investments in what actually keeps us safe, healthy, and housed, police foundations exist to funnel private money towards private policing and to secretly continue the militarization of police departments.

Instead of supporting the communities police claim to “protect and serve,” police foundations exist to keep police militarized and well-funded, whether community-members and voters want that or not.