Dark Money - Police Foundations

A corporate-sponsored threat

to democracy and Black lives

Never heard of police foundations? That’s the point.

Behind closed doors, police foundations and their corporate sponsors privately fund the ongoing militarization and expansion of policing — targeting Black, Brown, and Indigenous communities.

Color Of Change and LittleSis have compiled the most extensive report to date of the links between police foundations and corporations, identifying over 1,200 corporate donations or executives serving as board members at 23 of the largest police foundations in the country.

What Are Police Foundations?

POLICE FOUNDATION.

N. ORIGIN: NEW YORK CITY, 1971

A Public Relations

arm of local police departments; promote “copaganda” and messages that contribute to misconceptions about crime and the normalization of ever-growing policing.

POLICE FOUNDATION.

N. ORIGIN: NEW YORK CITY, 1971

A BACKCHANNEL

that allows corporations and wealthy donors to fund policing, expands already enormous police budgets, and further militarizes law enforcement without oversight or public approval.

POLICE FOUNDATION.

N. ORIGIN: NEW YORK CITY, 1971

A Private Organization

that funnels corporate money into policing, enabling state-sanctioned violence against Black communities and communities of color.

Police Foundations Harm Black, Brown and Indigenous Communities.

Police Foundations often purchase police dogs and horses

also known as K-9 Units and mounted patrols, both of which are used as tools to harm and maim Black people. As civil resistance to police violence grows, police animals and other equipment are used to repress protests and injure protesters demanding police accountability and racial justice.

Police foundations undermine efforts to invest in public safety

by supplementing police budgets and donating dangerous equipment to police departments—even as communities seek to invest in public safety by funding public education, housing, mental health services, and community-led violence prevention programs.

Police foundations donate military equipment and funds behind closed doors

Many police foundations were formed in the last decade after calls to demilitarize the police. By donating military equipment, police foundations contribute the tools used to brutalize, humiliate and imprison Black and Brown people.

Police foundations help police acquire controversial surveillance tech,

“predictive policing” software, military weapons, and SWAT team equipment. This equipment is often tested and targeted in predominantly Black, Brown, and Indigenous communities.

Amid mounting evidence that many police departments routinely display both implicit bias and outright racism, reports show that corporate America continues to pour millions of dollars into the police.

—Jon Skolnik, Salon

Police Foundations

ADD TO BLOATED POLICE BUDGETS

As communities and advocates seek to reduce the size, scope, and power of police departments—and to increase investments in public education, housing, healthcare services, and community-led violence prevention programs — police foundations are a backdoor route to undermine those efforts and funnel private money into policing.

FUND POLICE MILITARIZATION

Police foundations from Philadelphia to Atlanta, Houston and beyond have purchased SWAT equipment, from long guns and drones to ballistic helmets that allow militarized police forces to terrorize Black communities. As civil resistance to police violence grows, this kind of equipment is also being used to repress protest.

EXPAND SURVEILLANCE

Through police foundations, private donors and corporations fund expanded surveillance. Police have used recent protests as an excuse to unleash new surveillance technologies, including those funded by police foundations, on protesters across the country. The Atlanta Police Foundation, for example, has funded a network of over 11,000 surveillance cameras to monitor already overpoliced Black Atlantans, making Atlanta the most surveilled city in the United States.

TEST NEW WEAPONS

Police foundations fund controversial programs with limited government oversight. From “predictive policing” software that embeds bias in technology and can make racist policing even worse, to global police exchanges with authoritarian regimes, police foundations have helped police departments roll out practices and technology without having to answer to communities or elected officials.

PROMOTE Copaganda

Through rewards-tiplines like “Crime Stoppers,” advertising, special events, media relationships and more, police foundations drive publicity and messages that contribute to misconceptions about crime and the normalization of constant surveillance and ever-growing policing.

Police foundations

We examined police foundations in 23 cities, and identified the corporate affiliations of over 1200 directors and sponsors. Here’s what we found:

REVENUE TO police foundations

Police Foundation Funding

Revenue to Police Foundations

Police Foundation Funding

How Police foundations use funding

corporatE funders of police foundations

How police Foundations Use Funding

Corporate Funders of police foundations

Beyond the statement

HOLDING CORPORATIONS ACCOUNTABLE

In the aftermath of the police murder of George Floyd, the fight for racial justice became a global movement. While it’s critical that companies, brands, and celebrities take a stand against racism, tweets and statements alone won’t change material conditions for Black people. Corporations must put their money where their mouth is and follow through on commitments to divest from violent policing and invest in Black communities and Black futures.

After several conversations with Color Of Change and being made aware of police foundation harms, Coca-Cola has stepped down from the Atlanta Police Board effective April 2021.

Platinum Sponsors of Police Brutality

Nearly every major U.S. city has a police foundation that allows corporations to privately fund police. Police Foundations in Atlanta, Louisville, New York City, and Los Angeles deserve special recognition for their tireless efforts to fund and enable police violence.

Atlanta

Platinum Sponsor: Surveilling & Overpolicing Black Atlantans

The Atlanta Police Foundation (APF) is a private organization that gives corporate funding—and a blank check to overpolice Black Atlantans—to the Atlanta Police Department (APD).

Sponsoring Cop City, one of the largest police training facilities in the United States, on protected forest land, with $60 million in corporate funding
Making Atlanta the most surveilled city in the United States, with over 11,000 security cameras and license plate readers
Purchasing potentially lethal police dogs

Louisville

Platinum Sponsor: Police Militarization

Louisville Metro Police Foundation has:

Purchased SWAT team training and military-grade equipment for Louisville Police
Provided direct funding to police officers and
Co-sponsored a pro-police rally with the Fraternal Order of Police, an organization which may meet the Southern Poverty Law Center’s definition of a hate group

New York

Platinum Sponsor: Expanding controversial policing worldwide

The NYC Police Foundation has paid for:

The NYPD’s controversial International Liaison Program, which posts members of the NYPD’s Intelligence Bureau around the globe
Controversial technology from Palantir, whose “predictive policing” technology has been described as “systems — designed for our wars of foreign occupation — that supposedly find criminals before they commit crimes”
Potentially lethal police dogs and horses as well as bomb detonating robots

Los Angeles

Platinum Sponsor: Corporations over Black Lives

The Los Angeles Police Department (LAPD) budget accounts for half of discretionary spending in Los Angeles. Yet the Los Angeles Police Foundation still raised nearly $10 million in 2019, and it has paid for controversial technology that raises racial bias, conflict of interest and privacy concerns, including license plate readers and stingrays, and technology and equipment by some of the corporations that contribute to the foundation, including:

Palantir, whose “probable offender” model creates a vicious cycle of disproportionately high arrests in Black and Brown communities
Axon/Taser. The company donated Tasers, which can be lethal, to the LAPD