Columbus public safety budget under review

COLUMBUS, Ohio (WCMH) -- Columbus City Council is in the process of amending the 2025 proposed city budget through a series of hearings.  

One of these hearings happened Thursday afternoon and covered public safety, which typically gets the biggest chunk of the budget, with more than $774 million set to go to the Department of Public Safety, which operates police, fire and other support services.  

“It is consistently the largest portion of the budget every single year, about two-thirds of the budget,” Columbus Councilmember Emmanuel Remy said. “We are looking out for the people of Columbus and trying to do so with our first responders and courts." 

Mayor Andrew Ginther wants a portion of the $774 million to go toward the recruitment of police officers since CPD has struggled to hire and retain them. Another chunk of the funds would go to community safety programs like Crime Stoppers, Shot Spotter technology, Columbus Humane, and youth violence prevention groups.  

“We’ve been continually investing approximately $20 million a year in youth programming to make sure that we’re giving outlets for the children that are in the city of Columbus to have creative outlets,” Remy said. “So we’re going to continue to make that investment because we believe that helps to make our streets safer.”  

One organization asking for money in the 2025 proposed budget is the Rickenbacker Woods Foundation, which focuses on keeping high-risk teens away from trouble, partly through a paid internship program for high schoolers.  

“We’re keeping them out of harm’s way and keeping them busy,” Rickenbacker Woods Executive Director Michael Aaron said. “Statistics say that afterschool programs lead to reduced youth violence, youth crime, so we keep them busy and the pay part is an incentive.” 

Aaron said Rickenbacker Woods is asking for $200,000 which he said would be used to continue programs that are shown to help kids. 

Remy said these types of programs are fundamental to Columbus so city council will work to get them funding. He said it depends on how much wiggle room is left in the budget.  

“So we’ll continue that process and hopefully we’ll have the opportunity to award good programs like Rickenbacker Woods,” he said. 

Aaron is hopeful that Rickenbacker Woods will get the funding it needs. 

“Keeping young people out of harm’s way is absolutely a public safety concern,” he said. “We watch the news all the time and we see what’s happening in the city. Crimes are reducing but we think programs like ours can help reduce it even more so.” 

Thursday’s budget hearing was the last of 2024. There will be more in the new year and council is set to make amendments to the budget and then vote for approval in February.  

For more on the Rickenbacker Woods Foundation, click here.