Poverty alleviation efforts such as TANF, as well as investments in mental health, education and other critical programs, can help reduce crime, and therefore the state’s reliance on the police. However, from 1977 to 2017, Georgia saw a 122 percent increase in spending on police. This increase coincided with an 81 percent decrease in spending on cash assistance for low-income families, a critical safety net program to help families make ends meet. Disparate policing practices have also led to the overincarceration of Black Georgians, and there has been an increase in spending on the policing and detention of immigrants.
In Georgia, the overwhelming majority of spending on police (85 percent) is funded at the local level. The interactive chart below shows police spending in the most populous cities in Georgia, as well as demographic information for the city.
