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Several South Florida cities are among the local governments nationwide using federal COVID recovery funding to shore up their police departments and other law enforcement efforts.

Driving the news: Through the American Rescue Plan Act (ARPA), President Joe Biden gave U.S. cities and counties $350 billion to recover from the pandemic.

The Marshall Project found that around $52.6 billion has been categorized as "revenue replacement," a vague catch-all category, while nearly half of that went to projects that mentioned police, law enforcement, courts, jails and prisons.

Of note: Biden has pointed to ARPA to show that Democrats don't want to "defund the police," the Marshall Project reports.

Zoom in: Florida got $8.8 billion in ARPA funding. Through a partnership with The Marshall Project, Axios found that:

Yes, but: Cities also used the federal COVID funds for projects like sewer repairs and housing.

What they're saying: "Aventura is using ARPA funds to invest in the things that are most important to our residents — our parks, infrastructure, and public safety," said city spokesperson Evan Ross.

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