That phrase might sound scary and daunting to a lot of people. Cries for defunding America’s police are something that have grown in volume during this most recent social movement. But it can so easily be misconstrued or blown out of proportion by those who don’t fully understand the logistics behind the statement.
What most people aren’t realizing is that “defund the police” isn’t just a ridiculous claim made by those who are looking to fight for Black lives and make an impact. People who support this movement aren’t looking to abolish any and all forms of security and protection for American citizens. On the contrary, “defund the police” is a slogan that supports divesting funds from police departments and reallocating them to more non-policing forms of public safety and community support, such as social services, youth services, housing, education, and other community resources. This is a far cry from simply getting rid of all safety measures in society.
This movement to defund the police has been supported by activists for decades. Since the 1960s, local governments have spent increasingly larger portions of their budgets on law enforcement—which was partially due to the “war on crime” launched by President Lyndon B. Johnson that was prioritizing crime control via law enforcement and prisons. Also, police unions have garnered significant power in local politics because of direct endorsements of political candidates and funding of campaigns. Police department budgets have been widely considered untouchable for decades.
By 2020, US cities collectively spent approximately $115 billion per year on policing. For many cities, policing is their largest expenditure.
There are many arguments as to why defunding the police is a viable option. One is the question of police effectiveness and utility. About 10.5 million arrests are made every year, and less than 5% are for violent crimes. The majority of all arrests are non violent offenses, such as drug offenses. Also, when police are tasked with managing violent crimes, such as solving murders, some argue that they are often unsuccessful. For example, approximately one in three murders are never solved. The police also have a low track record for resolving cases related to sexual and domestic abuse, including failure to properly prosecute and arrest police officers who are committing abuse.
Another major argument for defunding the police has to do with race. Critics argue that the actual history of policing is rooted in racist practices, including slave patrols, enforcement of Jim Crow laws, repression of the Civil Rights movement, etc. This can also be found in the statistics of those who are arrested by the police. In 2015, a study found that African-Americans are 2.7 times more likely to be arrested for drug violations than white people, even though both African-Americans and whites have similar rates of drug use and possession. Also, a whopping 40% of the US prison population is Black, despite making up only 11% of the whole population.
Defunding the police and reallocating those huge amounts of funds to other community-driven resources could be a huge change for these jarring statistics. This movement is predicated on the belief that investing in communities would act as a better deterrent to crime by directly addressing societal issues, such as mental illness, poverty, and homelessness. People argue that these types of issues cannot be properly handled by police, and yet police are often the ones tasked to deal with them. It seems that every societal failure is expected to be solved by the police, however, policing was never meant to solve all of these issues.
Supporters of this movement argue that this can be avoided by replacing some police officers with trained social workers or specialized response teams.
While the term “defund the police” may sound ludicrous and dangerous to some, the actual points and arguments for this movement are based on improving the pitfalls of policing and gaining better methods for dealing with community-based issues. Most people aren’t calling for the total abolishment of forms of public safety, just simply to rearrange the system in place and reallocate the immense amount of funds to education, social work, drug counseling, and so much more. In this sense, defunding the police sounds a lot more safe and logical than what many have thought. It’s worth it to at least consider. Sometimes drastic reform is what’s needed most.