A recent report by the Public Accountability Initiative has divulged information related to two critical issues in contemporary America: the broken policing system and the ever-increasing ability of corporations to buy influence within public bodies. The report reveals that some of the largest American corporations are leveraging their wealth to influence local police departments via the funding of so-called ‘police foundations.’ In turn, already-overfunded police departments are gaining access to capital that can be spent with little to no public oversight. This report comes on the back of months of protests in the United States, with police brutality and the overall failure of the American police force being driving factors.

Police foundations claim to be non-profit charities which improve the status of police departments by disbursing the donations they receive from large companies and members of the public. For example, the Houston Police Foundation website claims that donators are “building a safer Houston and a stronger police department.” The website then details how the money will be spent; examples include constructing a tactical training village, buying surveillance technology, and paying for high-speed chase simulator time.

In and of itself, this is not particularly shocking – although it is somewhat bizarre, considering public tax money is already filtered into America’s enormously overinflated police budgets. However, the homepages of these websites are mere smokescreens. In reality, these ‘police foundations’ operate as opaque financial instruments, allowing large corporations to buy influence within police departments in exchange for generous donations. This is effectively a lobbying system dressed up as a benevolent community-based charity.

Due to certain laws regarding non-profits in the U.S.A., the foundations are not required to divulge information about donations. However, the Public Accountability Initiative’s report successfully uncovered a long list of major corporations that have made donations to these foundations. Donor corporations range from Wall Street giants, such as Bank of America and Goldman Sachs, to major fossil fuel companies, such as Chevron, Halliburton, and Marathon Petroleum, and retail companies such as Starbucks and Target. The donations range in size from $10,000 to $900,000. The latter was made from Georgia Power to the Atlanta Police force foundation.

Police departments have a clear motivation to accept these donations. Corporate donation expands their budget and, more importantly, gives them access to funds which they can spend with almost no oversight. Several police foundations proudly advertise how they’ve spent the money. The Houston Police Foundation, for example, provides a clear list of ‘items’ such as surveillance equipment and K-9 units.

However, the motives behind corporate donations are less clear. Heidi Boghosian, an attorney and civil liberties advocate, suggests that corporations present the donations as a form of charity. “It is packaged as ‘we are giving back to the community,’” Boghosian writes in her 2013 book, Spying on Democracy. In reality, “[a] lot of these wealthy donors … have elite motivations.” Boghosian suggests these donors are primarily interested in protecting their own private property, effectively buying increased police attention. This translates to extra surveillance and police presence in marginalized areas. “Immigrants, lower-income neighborhoods, persons of color – these are the communities that have traditionally been targeted, the ones who disproportionately suffer,” Boghosian writes.

The process is most obvious by the presence of corporate power on the foundations’ boards. Chevron, for instance, has a place on the board of the Houston Police Foundation, while Marathon Petroleum sits on the Detroit Public Safety board. That police foundation operates in the very city where Marathon Oil has faced several court cases for the pollution generated by its refinery. This example illustrates the conflict of interest this relationship has invoked. The very companies that are responsible for breaking environmental regulations are buying influence within the police departments that are supposed to protect the communities those corporations abuse. (According to the 2018 government census, 78.6% of Detroit’s population identified as Black or African American.)

Amidst widespread calls to defund and restructure police departments across the United States, the Public Accountability Initiative’s report reveals yet another major issue within the American policing system. We must carry out an in-depth inquiry into the relationship between corporations, police foundations, and police departments in order to provide a true understanding of how police departments have been compromised by corporate interests. The struggle to create a just American policing system faces many obstacles. This one must be overcome to create a system that works for the people, as opposed to against them.