Early discussions around ways to amend the mayor’s $4.6 billion budget have raised concerns that the Boston City Council is considering deep cuts to police department spending for a third straight year.

A year after its vote to slash $31 million from the Boston Police Department was criticized and vetoed by Mayor Michelle Wu, city councilors submitted individual amendments this week that would collectively cut millions of dollars from the mayor’s proposed $454.1 million spending plan for BPD, the Herald has learned.

The amendments to the mayor’s fiscal year 2025 budget totaled roughly $30 million, including about $18 million in police cuts, as presented during a Thursday working session led by Council Vice President Brian Worrell, who is shepherding this year’s budget review process as chair of the Ways and Means committee, Councilor-at-Large Erin Murphy told the Herald Friday.

Things became a bit murkier during Friday’s session, when councilors were asked to chime in about whether they would support certain amendments that would cut funding for police in order to transfer those funds to other city departments, a City Hall source said.

Based on input from the first two sessions, Murphy said, “it appears that many of my colleagues will not be in favor of decreasing the police budget by that much.” Still, the potential for a Council budget that would slash millions, or any funding at all, from BPD, drew a sharp rebuke from the head of the city’s largest police union.

“With social unrest so high and police departments across the country struggling to hire and retain officers, any talk of defunding the police is absurdly irresponsible for the citizens of Boston,” Larry Calderone, president of the Boston Police Patrolmen’s Association, said in a statement. “We should be increasing the police budget and hiring more officers, not decreasing it.”

Murphy and City Councilor Ed Flynn criticized the potential cuts to BPD, along with several amendments that would collectively cut $1.5 million from the Boston Fire Department.

Discussion around police cuts comes as several councilors are pushing the city to delay its plans to sign a new contract with the company that produces ShotSpotter, a gunshot detection system used by the police department, amid allegations of racial bias. The mayor and police commissioner support the technology.

“At this crucial time in our city, and when the department is working very hard to recruit more officers, I am not in favor of decreasing their budget by any amount,” Murphy said.

Flynn added, “As we debate the city budget, we should not cut services and programs that impact public safety and neighborhood services. Any budget cut to the Boston Police Department would be irresponsible and reckless. We must not turn our backs on Boston’s first responders.”

Worrell, who is chairing this year’s budget process, said, however, that any talk of cuts is premature. The Council is still working through its budget process, and discussing how and whether to exercise its amendment power, he said.

The process involves delving through amendments submitted by 13 councilors, some of which may be duplicative. The Council was granted the authority to amend or reduce, but not increase the mayor’s budget, via a November 2021 ballot initiative.

“Through that process, we are looking to build consensus on what new investment we want to make to the budget,” Worrell told the Herald. “Everything is a work in progress. We have two more working sessions.”

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The Council will continue to discuss and tweak the budget during working sessions on Monday and Tuesday, and vote to either approve or reject the budget at its weekly meeting on Wednesday, Worrell said.

He also pushed back on suggestions that there were plans to make deep cuts to city services — as was the case during last year’s budget process, which was shepherded by Councilor Tania Fernandes Anderson, chair of last term’s Ways and Means committee.

The Council in 2023 voted to cut millions of dollars from basic city services, between the police, transportation, public works, and veterans departments, among others. The mayor vetoed last year’s cuts, which included $31 million from BPD. Wu also rejected a vote to slash $13.3 million from the police budget in 2022.

“In this process, we are not looking to impact any city services or the quality of life that our city services provide to our constituents in any way,” Worrell said. “That is completely not our goal. We’re looking to increase the investments and services that our city provides to our residents.”

The mayor recommended a $454.1 million budget for the police department in FY25, representing a $10.7 million, or 2% increase, over the current fiscal year. In her budget proposal, Wu wrote that the spending increase is largely driven by recently-settled contracts with three unions that include the Patrolmen’s Association.