Over three weeks after the tragic murder of George Floyd by Minneapolis police officers, protests and political movements are still continuing across the country. Now that the immediate calls for charges against the four officers involved in Floyd’s death have been met, the conversation is shifting to much larger issues of policy brutality and systemic inequality. There are lots of relatively simple and easy solutions that can help the immediate problems of excessive use of force, such as these eight policy reforms. However, simple and immediate reforms of police policies are likely not going to be enough to reverse the decades-long trends that brought us to this point. Many organizations and protest movements are now calling to partially defund or completely dismantle police departments around the country. This may sound extreme at first, but the reality is actually much less controversial. So what exactly does “defund the police” mean? Let’s look at these proposals this week.
But first, it’s important to note that there is a wide spectrum of ideas here. Not everyone agrees on all of these, but generally there is broad agreement that we need to go beyond small reforms and fundamentally review the role of the police in society. There is a long history of federal policies that have flooded the streets with police such as the War on Drugs and the “Broken Windows” policy. Because of policies like these, the United States now has one of the highest incarceration rates in the world. But it isn’t exactly clear that this has helped make America safer. So what are some of the proposals for re-imaging the role of the police?
Defunding Police Departments
What It Means
—Reducing police budgets to put fewer armed officers on the street
—Redirecting these funds to social services and mental health workers
—Removing police budgets to purchase military hardware from the federal government
—Investing more funds into schools and food programs for marginalized communities
What It Does Not Mean
—Does not mean completely eliminating police budgets.
—Does not mean police cease to exist entirely.
So what are these policies intending to do? Overall this would reduce the number of armed police officers and increase the number of social and mental health workers. By doing this, we would help ensure that only the most appropriate resources are being sent for 9-11 calls. If someone is experiencing a mental health problem, noise complaint, or a drug overdose, it makes far more sense to send someone who is trained to handle these situations. They are far less likely to accidentally escalate the situation because the use of deadly force isn’t really an option in those cases. The mental health and social services intervention training for most police officers is extremely minimal. But even with greater training, the presence of armed officers tends to escalate a situation in the first place. After all, if you’re having a mental health crisis and someone with a gun shows up, you are probably going to freak out even more. But some groups believe that simply shifting funds isn’t enough. That’s where calls to dismantle police departments come in.
Dismantling Police Departments
What It Means
—Gradually dissolving a police department and requiring all officers to re-apply to their jobs
—Complete structural reform that reviews and removes bad officers
—Creating citizen-led review boards for police misconduct investigations
—Shifting resources away from armed intervention towards mental health and social work
What It Does Not Mean
—Does not mean complete anarchy in the streets
—Does not mean no more police officers ever
There is a lot of overlap with dismantling police and defunding police. But one of the key differences is that dismantling often involves creating a completely new public safety department to replace the existing police department. Often this is done in part to remove the power of police unions (who fiercely defend even convicted criminal officers). A similar approach was done in Camden, New Jersey only a few years ago. There, local and state officials completely dissolved the existing police department and set up a new system which has been heralded as a dramatic success story. What was once one of the worst cities in the nation for police brutality and crime has now become an example of what effective reform could look like.
The Camden police chief participating in BLM protests.
The Bottom Line
Ultimately, the movements to defund and dismantle police departments are about reshaping the way we view policing in our society. It’s clear after all these years that minor changes like body cameras and bias training are not enough. The modern iteration of the police force was built in part upon the southern legacy of slave patrols, so that legacy will need to be removed before meaningful change can occur. Admittedly, messages like “defund the police” or “dismantle the police” tend to sound much more radical than they actually are. But it is encouraging to see the overall narrative shift towards actually discussing what these policies mean. If the first step is admitting we have a problem, it seems like much of America has finally taken this first step. But one step isn’t enough. This isn’t a light jog, it is a marathon towards progress, equity, and equal justice under the law.