Wheeler is just one of several liberal leaders of blue cities to recently excoriate Trump for his anti-democratic stunts while doing little about the terror inflicted by law enforcement in their backyards. The precise contours of mayoral authority obviously vary, but in general, mayors wield a great deal of power to propose and amend budget requests, and to use that process to set the city’s priorities, says Yucel Ors, legislative director for public safety and crime prevention at the National League of Cities. Although they are rarely involved in day-to-day agency administration, they can typically hire and fire high-ranking officials—like, say, police chiefs—and hold them accountable for what happens on their watch.
The soft power that mayors wield can be just as significant, since the office lends them a bully pulpit they can use to call for reforms, criticize misconduct, and otherwise send a message about how they intend to lead. “Mayors can bring together key stakeholders to really look at how policing is happening in their communities,” Ors says, and “work with the police chief to hopefully make changes to local policing to address those concerns.”
-- Jay Willis, "Feuding With Donald Trump Is Not Police Reform" (BLACK AGENDA REPORT).