The City of Binghamton and SUNY-Binghamton fully agree on at least one principle:  there is seemingly no limit to funding mass incarceration and mass policing, even in times of fiscal crisis.

Binghamton’s City Council, which prides itself on cutting budgets and trimming social services while adding more police officers every year, announced last month the purchase of the city’s own $275,000 armored personnel carrier.  The Sheriff already has one in his fleet of large military vehicles scattered around the county; one would think one is enough to repel any military invasions or dark threats to the local state. Not to be outdone, announced this month was yet another holiday gift:  a $1.2 million updating of police headquarters.

SUNY-Binghamton, which already funds part of the City police budget, hasn’t quite matched the City’s moves this month—after all the University just announced a major fiscal crisis.  The President and Provost quickly blamed 2% raises for faculty and staff. Yet the raises have long been anticipated, and are smaller than the rampant rise in University spending in other, less transparent, areas.

Millions of dollars are likely to be recouped by not filling vacancies arising from over 90 retirements alone this year.  Harpur College, which does most of the teaching on campus, is likely to suffer particularly. Some programs have already announced they will no longer be able enroll new students.  In my own department six faculty are leaving or retiring, with no replacements likely at any time in the near future–gutting course listings, new programming, and recruitment of students.

As the campus newspaper Pipedream reported, among other cutbacks “University libraries face a 4 percent budget cut for next year, and the University is implementing a hiring freeze, which includes all leadership searches. The only exception to the freeze will be teaching assistants and adjunct professors.”

This however has been proven to be inaccurate.  For shortly after the freeze was announced, the University proceeded with hiring a new police chief, rather than appoint an interim replacement as is now the case for other senior positions across the campus.  And police chiefs aren’t cheap:  the outgoing Chief’s rate of pay was $163,000 last year.  Nor was this all:  more expensive is the creation of a wholly new Associate Vice President position and office for the outgoing Chief.  Associate Vice Presidents earn upward of $200,000.   And this is before the approximately 40% more for fringe benefits.

For those on campus, these moves continue a long steady growth in the armed and militarized presence of police.  Binghamton University’s police is already larger than that of Johnson City, Vestal, and Endicott.

Fiscal crisis and fiscal constraint?  It seems not, when it comes to growing the machinery of mass incarceration, notwithstanding low and receding crime rates.

December 23, 2018