Defunding the Police?

On Sunday, nine out of 13 Minneapolis City Council members announced that they intended to defund and dismantle the police department. According to the council, they said that they were looking into shifting the funding for policing to community-based strategies, and would not try to “glue it back together” after dismantling the force.

However, what exactly does defunding the police entail? There are a number of different proposed approaches. One simple approach is to simply reallocate a portion of the police forces’ funds to social services, while another approach is to defund and disband police forces. Depending on who you ask, defunding the police could also mean disbanding the police, while to others it may not. (Do note that, in general, disbanding the police does not mean getting rid of the police forever. It generally implies starting over again by putting together a new force.)

Reasons for defunding or disbanding the police vary. Although steps have been taken to try and minimize the impact of race in policing, there has been little progress made. From America’s past, Black people have always been subject to unfair, harsh punishment. In fact, law enforcement in the south started off to capture escaped slaves, and even after slavery was abolished, police were mainly used to enforce Jim Crow laws, a series of harsh laws directed against Blacks. Even today, Black people are more likely to be arrested and sentenced and police often disproportionately use force against Blacks. The notion that Blacks seem to be inherently “bad” still remains, even today. More often than not, for the same crime, Blacks tend to receive a longer sentence than Whites.

Defunding the police would involve reallocating funds, which would be used to support low-income individuals, and provide increased services for mental health, violence, homelessness, and more, rather than have police deal with this as well.

In addition, many community organizations, like MPD150, state that most crime is caused due to a lack of education, employment, or mental health services. By reallocating funds into community services, these organizations say that crime could be reduced.

There is evidence that supports the fact that less policing would lead to less crime. When the New York Police Department reduced policing for a few weeks in 2014, there were 2,100 fewer crime complaints during that time. In addition, disbanding police forces would allow for a fresh start, new training, and a blank canvas, allowing for the status quo to end. Disbanding has happened before, and it generally produces good results.

Do you think the police should be defunded or disbanded? Let us know in the comments below. Make sure to follow/subscribe for more.