DETROIT, Mich. (Michigan News Source) – Detroit Mayor Mike Duggan, Detroit Police Chief Todd Bettison and Republican Speaker of the House Matt Hall were in Detroit Monday to pitch a new way to fund police in Michigan.

The GOP has introduced House Bills 4260 and 4261 that would take a cut of the state sales tax revenue and put it in a new Public Safety and Violence Prevention Fund. That money would be given to local law enforcement agencies with an emphasis on communities with higher incidences of violent crime. The new fund is projected at more than $100 million a year.

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Municipalities across the state have seen record levels of revenue in 2024, in part due to the federal COVID-19 pandemic relief money. As an example, the city of Detroit’s police costs are nearing half a billion dollars a year.

Since the pandemic, the city of Detroit has expanded its police force. The number of budgeted full-time employees has increased from 3,094 in 2019 to 3,385 in 2024. That’s the largest number of full-time employees since 2009.

Total expenditures in the police department have increased from $321.6 million in 2019 to a budgeted $441.8 million in 2025.

As Michigan News Source reported previously, there were 85 police employees in the Detroit police department who made at least $65,000 in overtime or more in 2024, including 16 employees who made $100,000 or more in overtime. A police sergeant working with the city of Detroit took home $306,924 in gross pay in 2024, including $114,510 in overtime he was paid.