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"Defund the police" is a slogan that supports removing funds from
police The police are a Law enforcement organization, constituted body of Law enforcement officer, persons empowered by a State (polity), state, with the aim to law enforcement, enforce the law, to ensure the safety, health and possessions of citize ...
departments and reallocating them to non-policing forms of public safety and community support, such as
social services Social services are a range of public services intended to provide support and assistance towards particular groups, which commonly include the disadvantaged. They may be provided by individuals, private and independent organisations, or adminis ...
, youth services, housing, education, healthcare and other community resources. Activists who use the phrase may do so with varying intentions; some seek modest reductions, while others argue for full divestment as a step toward the abolition of contemporary police services. Activists who support the defunding of police departments often argue that investing in community programs could provide a better crime deterrent for communities; funds would go toward addressing
social issue A social issue is a problem that affects many people within a society. It is a group of common problems in present-day society and ones that many people strive to solve. It is often the consequence of factors extending beyond an individual's cont ...
s, like
poverty Poverty is the state of having few material possessions or little income. Poverty can have diverse
,
homelessness Homelessness or houselessness – also known as a state of being unhoused or unsheltered – is the condition of lacking stable, safe, and adequate housing. People can be categorized as homeless if they are: * living on the streets, also kn ...
, and
mental disorder A mental disorder, also referred to as a mental illness or psychiatric disorder, is a behavioral or mental pattern that causes significant distress or impairment of personal functioning. Such features may be persistent, relapsing and remitti ...
s. Police abolitionists call for replacing existing police forces with other systems of public safety, like housing, employment,
community health Community health refers to simple health services that are delivered by laymen outside hospitals and clinics. Community health is also the subset of public health that is taught to and practiced by clinicians. Community health volunteers and commu ...
, education, and other programs. The "defund the police" slogan became common during the
George Floyd protests The George Floyd protests were a series of protests and civil unrest against police brutality and racism that began in Minneapolis on May 26, 2020, and largely took place during 2020. The civil unrest and protests began as part of internat ...
starting in May 2020. According to
Jenna Wortham Jenna Wortham is an American journalist. They work as a culture writer for '' The New York Times Magazine'' and co-hosts ''The New York Times'' podcast ''Still Processing'' with Wesley Morris. In 2020, with Kimberly Drew, Wortham published '' B ...
and Matthew Yglesias, the slogan was popularized by the
Black Visions Collective Black Visions Collective (BLVC) is an American nonprofit organization for black liberation based in Minnesota, founded in December 2017. The group intersects with transgender and LGBTQ communities. Active in the Minneapolis–Saint Paul metrop ...
shortly after
the murder "The Murder" is a cinematic score written and composed by Bernard Herrmann for the horror- thriller film '' Psycho'' (1960) directed by Alfred Hitchcock. The score, its second movement in particular, is well recognized as one of the most famous ...
of
George Floyd George Perry Floyd Jr. (October 14, 1973 – May 25, 2020) was an African-American man who was murdered by a police officer in Minneapolis, Minnesota, during an arrest made after a store clerk suspected Floyd may have used a counterfeit tw ...
.
Black Lives Matter Black Lives Matter (abbreviated BLM) is a decentralized political and social movement that seeks to highlight racism, discrimination, and racial inequality experienced by black people. Its primary concerns are incidents of police bruta ...
, the
Movement for Black Lives The Movement for Black Lives (M4BL) is a coalition of more than 50 groups representing the interests of black communities across the United States. Members include the Black Lives Matter Network, the National Conference of Black Lawyers, and th ...
, and other activists have used the phrase to call for police budget reductions and to delegate certain police responsibilities to other organizations. In ''
Black Reconstruction in America ''Black Reconstruction in America: An Essay Toward a History of the Part Which Black Folk Played in the Attempt to Reconstruct Democracy in America, 1860–1880'' is a history of the Reconstruction era by W. E. B. Du Bois, first published in ...
'', first published in 1935,
W. E. B. Du Bois William Edward Burghardt Du Bois ( ; February 23, 1868 – August 27, 1963) was an American-Ghanaian sociologist, socialist, historian, and Pan-Africanist civil rights activist. Born in Great Barrington, Massachusetts, Du Bois grew up i ...
wrote about "abolition-democracy", which advocated for the removal of institutions that were rooted in racist and repressive practices, including prisons, convict leasing, and white police forces. In the 1960s, activists such as Angela Davis advocated for the defunding or abolition of police departments. The 2017 book '' The End of Policing'' by Alex S. Vitale has been called "a manual of sorts for the defund movement". Many sociologists, criminologists, and journalists have criticized aspects of the police defunding movement. In the United States, politicians from both the Democratic and Republican parties have spoken against defunding, although Republicans have sought to link Democrats to the movement in congressional races, and in 2021, the Biden administration rebutted by arguing Republicans were trying to defund the police. Among the general public in the United States, the concept of defunding is unpopular.


Background

Since the 1960s, municipal governments have increasingly spent larger portions of their budgets on law enforcement. This is partially rooted in the "
war on crime In modern politics, law and order is the approach focusing on harsher enforcement and penalties as ways to reduce crime. Penalties for perpetrators of disorder may include longer terms of imprisonment, mandatory sentencing, three-strikes laws a ...
", launched by President Lyndon B. Johnson, which prioritized crime control via law enforcement and prisons. Meanwhile, police unions have wielded significant power in local politics, due to direct endorsements of political candidates and funding of campaigns. Police department budgets have been considered "untouchable" for decades. By 2020, U.S. cities collectively spent approximately $115 billion per year on policing. In particular, in Los Angeles in 2020, the
LAPD The Los Angeles Police Department (LAPD), officially known as the City of Los Angeles Police Department, is the municipal police department of Los Angeles, California. With 9,974 police officers and 3,000 civilian staff, it is the third-large ...
budget constituted about 18% of the city's budget ($1.86 billion out of $10.5 billion) and about 54% of the city's general funds (i.e., tax revenues that are not designated for special purposes). In Chicago in 2020, the CPD constituted about 18% of the city's budget and 40% of the city's general funds ($1.6 billion). In New York City in 2020, the NYPD budget constituted about 6% of the city's budget ($5.9 billion out of $97.8 billion), the third largest budget after the Department of Education and the Department of Social Services. In Minneapolis, the budget for the police and corrections departments grew 41% between 2009 and 2019. As of 2017, state and local government spending on policing has remained just under 4% of general expenditures for the past 40 years. In 2017, over 95% went towards operational costs, such as salaries and benefits. While the officers per capita in major cities have not significantly changed, they have been equipped with more technology, gear, and training in the last few decades. On average, large cities spend about 8% of their general expenditures on policing, 5% on housing, and 3% on parks. Most cities' police budgets are larger than other public safety departments, especially during the
COVID-19 pandemic The COVID-19 pandemic, also known as the coronavirus pandemic, is an ongoing global pandemic of coronavirus disease 2019 (COVID-19) caused by severe acute respiratory syndrome coronavirus 2 (SARS-CoV-2). The novel virus was first identi ...
, where other budgets lessened but policing budgets were largely untouched.


Rationale


Effectiveness of police

Police defunding and abolition activists argue that the police have a poor track record of resolving cases related to murder, rape, and domestic abuse. Some further argue that police social work intervention leads to mass incarceration, risk of physical and mental harm, exposure to violence, and in some instances, death. According to a 2020 study from ''
The Washington Post ''The Washington Post'' (also known as the ''Post'' and, informally, ''WaPo'') is an American daily newspaper published in Washington, D.C. It is the most widely circulated newspaper within the Washington metropolitan area and has a large n ...
'', there is no correlation, positive or negative, between annual per capita police funding and per capita violent and overall crime rates.


Racism

Critics argue that the history of policing is rooted in racist practices, citing
slave patrol Slave patrols—also known as patrollers, patterrollers, pattyrollers or paddy rollersVerner D. Mitchell, Cynthia Davis (2019). ''Encyclopedia of the Black Arts Movement''. p. 323. Rowman & Littlefield—were organized groups of armed men who m ...
s, enforcement of
Jim Crow laws The Jim Crow laws were state and local laws enforcing racial segregation in the Southern United States. Other areas of the United States were affected by formal and informal policies of segregation as well, but many states outside the S ...
, and repression of the
civil rights movement The civil rights movement was a nonviolent social and political movement and campaign from 1954 to 1968 in the United States to abolish legalized institutional racial segregation, discrimination, and disenfranchisement throughout the Unite ...
, such as the
Selma to Montgomery marches The Selma to Montgomery marches were three protest marches, held in 1965, along the 54-mile (87 km) highway from Selma, Alabama, to the state capital of Montgomery. The marches were organized by nonviolent activists to demonstrate the ...
and the government's violent campaign against
Black Panther Party The Black Panther Party (BPP), originally the Black Panther Party for Self-Defense, was a Marxism-Leninism, Marxist-Leninist and Black Power movement, black power political organization founded by college students Bobby Seale and Huey P. New ...
leaders such as
Fred Hampton Fredrick Allen Hampton Sr. (August 30, 1948 – December 4, 1969) was an American activist. He came to prominence in Chicago as deputy chairman of the national Black Panther Party and chair of the Illinois chapter. As a progressive African Ame ...
.


Unbundling of services

Critics argue that police officers and police departments provide too many services. According to this argument, the United States has an over-reliance on law enforcement, which is expected to handle an unrealistically wide range of social issues, such as homelessness, mental health, and substance abuse. For these reasons, some activists have called for an unbundling of services. Under this model, many services that were previously provided by law enforcement would be provided by specialized response teams. These teams could include
social work Social work is an academic discipline and practice-based profession concerned with meeting the basic needs of individuals, families, groups, communities, and society as a whole to enhance their individual and collective well-being. Social wo ...
ers,
emergency medical technician An emergency medical technician (EMT), also known as an ambulance technician, is a health professional that provides emergency medical services. EMTs are most commonly found working in ambulances. In English-speaking countries, paramedics are ...
s,
conflict resolution Conflict resolution is conceptualized as the methods and processes involved in facilitating the peaceful ending of conflict and retribution. Committed group members attempt to resolve group conflicts by actively communicating information abo ...
specialists, restorative justice teams, and other community-based professionals. Police officers may be particularly badly suited for some community issues, such as mental health crises. One in four people who are killed by the police have severe mental illness. Some activists argue that, if someone is experiencing a mental health crisis, and if there is no emergent threat to themselves or other people, mental health professionals may be more adept and capable responders. Some activists also believe that if more funds were diverted to help treat and support those with mental health issues, there could be better outcomes. A 2020 paper by researchers at the
RAND Corporation The RAND Corporation (from the phrase "research and development") is an American nonprofit global policy think tank created in 1948 by Douglas Aircraft Company to offer research and analysis to the United States Armed Forces. It is finance ...
argues that the police are often given too many roles in society and asked to solve issues that they are not properly trained for and that would be better suited for professionals such as
mental health Mental health encompasses emotional, psychological, and social well-being, influencing cognition, perception, and behavior. It likewise determines how an individual handles Stress (biology), stress, interpersonal relationships, and decision-maki ...
, homelessness, drug abuse, and school related violence. A September 2020 paper by Taleed El-Sabawi of
Elon University School of Law Elon University School of Law is an American law school located in Greensboro, North Carolina, occupying the former downtown public library building. Established in 2006, Elon Law is one of nine graduate programs offered by Elon University. It ea ...
and Jennifer J. Carroll of North Carolina State University outlines the considerations in setting up such programs and includes model legislation. The 2021 American Rescue Plan included about a billion dollars available for reimbursing 85% of the costs for governments that implement these kinds of programs, and as of April 2021 at least 14 cities were reportedly interested. While the movement has roots primarily in the work of left-wing police abolition scholars and activists, it also has the support from many libertarians, though they rarely use the slogan "defund the police". Libertarians support the movement out of a concern for constitutional rights and a stance against what they consider far-reaching and ever-expanding powers given to state actors (for example, qualified immunity).


Effect on crime

The extent to which defunding police leads to a rise in crime has been challenged by scholars and policy experts. Criminologist
Richard Rosenfeld Richard Rosenfeld (born December 20, 1948) is an American criminologist and Founders Professor at the University of Missouri–St. Louis. Education Rosenfeld received his B.A. in 1972 and his Ph.D. in sociology in 1984, both from the University ...
argues that the increased rate of crime which followed the
George Floyd protests The George Floyd protests were a series of protests and civil unrest against police brutality and racism that began in Minneapolis on May 26, 2020, and largely took place during 2020. The civil unrest and protests began as part of internat ...
was more linked to the
COVID-19 pandemic The COVID-19 pandemic, also known as the coronavirus pandemic, is an ongoing global pandemic of coronavirus disease 2019 (COVID-19) caused by severe acute respiratory syndrome coronavirus 2 (SARS-CoV-2). The novel virus was first identi ...
than calls for police defunding, noting that while violent crime rates had increased, property crime rates had decreased, which he said showed evidence that crime was more connected to COVID-19 lockdowns. Patrick Sharkey, another criminologist, attributed the increase in crime to the
Ferguson effect The Ferguson effect is an increase in violent crime rates in a community caused by reduced proactive policing due to the community's distrust and hostility towards police. The Ferguson effect was first proposed after police saw an increase in vio ...
, arguing that "when you depend on the police to dominate public spaces and they suddenly step back from that role, violence can increase." In
Austin, Texas Austin is the capital city of the U.S. state of Texas, as well as the seat and largest city of Travis County, with portions extending into Hays and Williamson counties. Incorporated on December 27, 1839, it is the 11th-most-populous city ...
, after U.S. Representative
Michael McCaul Michael Thomas McCaul Sr. (born January 14, 1962) is an American attorney and politician serving as the U.S. representative for since 2005. A member of the Republican Party, he chaired the House Committee on Homeland Security during the 113 ...
said defunding the police had led to an increased rate of homicides, fact checkers said it was "hard to draw the conclusion the homicide rate is up strictly because of reallocating police funding."


Responses


Social scientists

According to
Princeton Princeton University is a private research university in Princeton, New Jersey. Founded in 1746 in Elizabeth as the College of New Jersey, Princeton is the fourth-oldest institution of higher education in the United States and one of the nin ...
sociologist Patrick Sharkey, the best evidence available shows that while police are effective in reducing violence, there is also a growing body of evidence that demonstrates community organizations can play a central role in reducing violence: In an interview with ''
The Atlantic ''The Atlantic'' is an American magazine and multi-platform publisher. It features articles in the fields of politics, foreign affairs, business and the economy, culture and the arts, technology, and science. It was founded in 1857 in Boston, ...
'', Sharkey stated, "Police presence can reduce violence, but there are lots of other things that reduce violence, too. Business improvement districts reduce violence. University security organizations reduce violence. It's possible that relying on police isn't as necessary as we once thought, and that we might even have safer communities without many of them." In an interview with '' Vox'', Sharkey acknowledged the effectiveness of aggressive policing and mass incarceration in reducing violence, but said these methods have "had staggering costs". He went on to say "The next model should be one driven primarily by residents and local organizations as the central actors. Police still certainly have a role to play, but responding to violent crime takes up only a tiny fraction of police officers' time. So the idea here is that we can rely on residents and local organizations to take over most of the duties that fficerscurrently handle and make sure neighborhoods are safe." Criminologists Justin Nix and Scott Wolfe state in ''
The Washington Post ''The Washington Post'' (also known as the ''Post'' and, informally, ''WaPo'') is an American daily newspaper published in Washington, D.C. It is the most widely circulated newspaper within the Washington metropolitan area and has a large n ...
'', "We have enough research evidence to be concerned about the immediate impact of drastic budget cuts or wholesale disbanding of police agencies: Crime and victimization will increase. ... These collateral consequences will disproportionately harm minority communities that need help, not further marginalization." They go on to state that, "Cities that have more police officers per capita tend to have lower crime rates. This does not necessarily mean we need to hire more police. Rather, having more officers per capita provides greater ability to dedicate resources to community- and problem-oriented policing approaches that have been shown to reduce crime and improve community satisfaction." They further argue that police departments need to be held more accountable for their use of funds, suggesting more emphasis on evidence-based practices, and say that making the police responsible for so many social ills should be reconsidered, although stating the infrastructure to handle those should be in place before reallocating funds. Kevin Robinson, a retired police chief and lecturer of criminology and criminal justice at Arizona State University, suggests that the slogan "defund the police" is misguided. He states that a more appropriate terminology would be "re-allocation" of specific portions of police department budgets. He states that most such budgets are tight, but says that a thorough review of spending is always warranted, and that program effectiveness should determine whether or not a program is continued. He says that criminals usually weigh the possibility of getting caught when committing a crime, and that "if there is a low likelihood of apprehension there will be more crimes committed—more people victimized." He further states that "Studies have shown ... that effective social programs can reduce criminality in adults and juveniles", and encourages police departments to incorporate social programs with police work. Sociologist Rashawn Ray, writing for the
Brookings Institution The Brookings Institution, often stylized as simply Brookings, is an American research group founded in 1916. Located on Think Tank Row in Washington, D.C., the organization conducts research and education in the social sciences, primarily in e ...
, states that much of what police do is misaligned with their skillset and training, and suggests that a reduction in their workload would increase their ability to solve violent crimes. He further states:
One consistent finding in the social science literature is that if we really want to reduce crime, education equity and the establishment of a work infrastructure is the best approach. A study using 60 years of data found that an increase in funding for police did not significantly relate to a decrease in crime. Throwing more police on the street to solve a structural problem is one of the reasons why people are protesting in the streets. Defunding police—reallocating funding away from police departments to other sectors of government—may be more beneficial for reducing crime and police violence.


Media

Matthew Yglesias, writing in '' Vox'', criticized police defunding and abolition activists for lacking a plan for how to deal with violent crime, and for ignoring the substantial literature finding that having more police leads to less violent crime. He stated that their dismissal of police reform ignores that even modest reforms have been shown to reduce police misconduct. He writes that across government as a whole, only a very small portion of spending goes to the police, and that while more social spending would probably reduce crime, that does not need to come out of police budgets, noting that the United States actually has 35% fewer police officers per capita than the rest of the world. He also states that abolishing public police services would lead to a surge in the use of private security services by those who can afford them, and that such services would lack accountability. The slogan's relation to the police abolition movement has been described as a
motte-and-bailey fallacy The motte-and-bailey fallacy (named after the motte-and-bailey castle) is a form of argument and an informal fallacy where an arguer conflates two positions that share similarities, one modest and easy to defend (the "motte") and one much more co ...
by John Murawski at '' RealClearInvestigations''. According to him, when "defund the police" is criticized as tantamount to police abolition by opponents, proponents provide a moderate interpretation in terms of police demilitarization until the criticisms are addressed, only to return to more radical interpretations later. Christy E. Lopez, in a column for ''The Washington Post'', supported the idea of defunding the police, stating that reform is not enough. She says that goals vary within the movement, and that " funding the police means shrinking the scope of police responsibilities and shifting most of what government does to keep us safe to entities that are better equipped to meet that need. It means investing more in mental-health care and housing, and expanding the use of community mediation and violence interruption programs." In light of the violence in
New York City New York, often called New York City or NYC, is the List of United States cities by population, most populous city in the United States. With a 2020 population of 8,804,190 distributed over , New York City is also the L ...
's streets, Al Sharpton has declared:


Public opinion

A
YouGov YouGov is a British international Internet-based market research and data analytics firm, headquartered in the UK, with operations in Europe, North America, the Middle East and Asia-Pacific. In 2007, it acquired US company Polimetrix, and sinc ...
opinion poll with fieldwork on May 29–30, 2020, found that less than 20% of American adults supported funding cuts for policing, with similar levels of support among Republicans and Democrats. In a poll conducted by ABC News/ Ipsos of 686 participants, on June 10–11, 34% of US adults supported "the movement to 'defund the police and 64% opposed it. Support was higher among black Americans (57%) than among whites (26%) and Hispanics (42%), and higher among Democrats (55%) than among Republicans or Independents. A June 23 – July 6 survey by
Gallup Gallup may refer to: * Gallup, Inc., a firm founded by George Gallup, well known for its opinion poll * Gallup (surname), a surname *Gallup, New Mexico, a city in New Mexico, United States ** Gallup station, an Amtrak train in downtown Gallup, New ...
found that 81% of African Americans wanted police to spend the same amount of time or more time in their neighborhoods, as did 86% of the sample as a whole.


Politicians


Democratic Party

Joe Biden, the presumptive Democratic presidential nominee who would go on to win the 2020 election, opposed defunding police forces, arguing instead that policing needed substantial reform. In his State of the Union Address of 2022, Biden drew bipartisan approval when he said: "We should all agree: The answer is not to defund the police. It's to fund the police". U.S. Senator
Bernie Sanders Bernard Sanders (born September8, 1941) is an American politician who has served as the junior United States senator from Vermont since 2007. He was the U.S. representative for the state's at-large congressional district from 1991 to 20 ...
also opposed defunding, arguing for more accountability for police, along with better education and training, and making their job better defined. U.S. Senator Cory Booker said he understood the sentiment behind the slogan but would not use it. U.S. Representative and Congressional Black Caucus chair Karen Bass said, "I do think that, in cities, in states, we need to look at how we are spending the resources and invest more in our communities. Maybe this is an opportunity to re-envision public safety." On November 9, 2020, House Majority Whip Jim Clyburn stated that Defund the police' is killing our party, and we've got to stop it." Clyburn argued that the phrase was reminiscent of the similarly radical phrase "burn, baby, burn" used in the racial protests of the 1960s, which undermined broad support for dismantling racial injustice. A small minority of the progressive lawmakers within the Democratic Party including
Ilhan Omar Ilhan Abdullahi Omar (born October 4, 1982) is an American politician serving as the U.S. representative for since 2019. She is a member of the Democratic–Farmer–Labor Party. Before her election to Congress, Omar served in the Minnesot ...
, Rashida Tlaib, Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez support defunding the police, believing that "Policing in our country is inherently & intentionally racist" and thus have called for police departments to be dismantled. In a December 2020 interview with journalist Peter Hamby, former U.S. President
Barack Obama Barack Hussein Obama II ( ; born August 4, 1961) is an American politician who served as the 44th president of the United States from 2009 to 2017. A member of the Democratic Party (United States), Democratic Party, Obama was the first Af ...
said that using "defund the police" may cause politicians to lose support and make their statements less effective.


Republican Party

U.S. President
Donald Trump Donald John Trump (born June 14, 1946) is an American politician, media personality, and businessman who served as the 45th president of the United States from 2017 to 2021. Trump graduated from the Wharton School of the University of P ...
on June 4, 2020, tweeted "The Radical Left Democrats new theme is 'Defund the Police'. Remember that when you don't want Crime, especially against you and your family. This is where Sleepy Joe is being dragged by the socialists. I am the complete opposite, more money for Law Enforcement! #LAWANDORDER". In the 2020 elections, Republicans running in competitive districts successfully flipped many Democratic-held seats by associating the Democratic candidate with the slogan. In competitive House of Representatives and Senate races, Republicans attacked their Democratic opponents by claiming, often falsely, that the Democratic candidate supports defunding the police. Both Democrats and Republicans have cited association with the defunding movement as a contributing factor in the Democrats' loss of seats in the 2020 House elections and the poorer than expected results in other Democratic campaigns.


Cities


New York City

In
New York City New York, often called New York City or NYC, is the List of United States cities by population, most populous city in the United States. With a 2020 population of 8,804,190 distributed over , New York City is also the L ...
, activists and lawmakers asked Mayor Bill de Blasio in April 2020 to use cuts to the police budget to make up for shortfalls caused by the Coronavirus pandemic. In June, during the Floyd protests, a group of 48 candidates for city office, along with Brooklyn College's Policing and Social Justice Project, asked the city council to reduce the NYPD budget by $1 billion over four years. City comptroller Scott Stringer said the city could save $1.1 billion over four years by cutting the numbers of police and reducing overtime and could divert the funds to "social workers, counselors, community-based
violence interrupter Cure Violence is a Violence interruption program for anti-violence. It aims to stop the spread of violence in communities by using the methods and strategies associated with public health and disease control: detecting and interrupting conflic ...
s, and other trained professionals". On June 15, 2020, Police Commissioner Dermot Shea announced that the NYPD would eliminate its
plainclothes police A covert operation is a military operation intended to conceal the identity of (or allow plausible deniability by) the party that instigated the operation. Covert operations should not be confused with clandestine operations, which are performed ...
units in the precinct-level and Housing Bureau anti-crime teams, and the officers would be reassigned to community policing and detective work. As of August 2020, New York City had cut $1 billion from the police budget, but this mostly involved shifting some responsibilities to other city agencies, with the size of the force barely changing. Some black and Latino members of the city council opposed major cuts to policing, with the majority leader saying it was "colonization" pushed by white progressives, while others supported more cuts. In the
2021 New York City mayoral election The 2021 New York City mayoral election was held on November 2, 2021. Incumbent Mayor Bill de Blasio was term-limited and ineligible to run for re-election. On June 22, 2021, the primary elections for the Democratic and Republican primaries ...
primary, candidates who campaigned to reduce police spending finished behind others who had not, and the winner, Eric Adams, had promised to increase the city's police force.


Los Angeles and San Francisco

In Los Angeles, Mayor
Eric Garcetti Eric Michael Garcetti (born February 4, 1971) is an American politician who served as the 42nd mayor of Los Angeles from 2013 until 2022. A member of the Democratic Party, he was first elected in the 2013 election, and reelected in 2017. A f ...
has said he would cut as much as $150 million from the Los Angeles Police Department's (LAPD) budget, a reversal of his planned increase of $120 million. Garcetti announced the funds would be redirected to community initiatives. In San Francisco, Mayor
London Breed London Nicole Breed (born August 11, 1974) is an American politician who is the 45th and current mayor of the City and County of San Francisco. She was supervisor for District 5 and was president of the San Francisco Board of Supervisors, Board ...
announced a plan to redirect some police funds to the city's African-American community, and she announced that police will no longer respond to non-criminal calls. However, in December 2021, after a reported spike in crime and drug dealing in the Tenderloin district, she announced her intention to flood the district streets with police in order to contain the emergency. In Milwaukee, an activist group called African-American Roundtable, formed by 65 organizations, asked the city to divert $75 million from the police budget to public health and housing.


Minneapolis

In Minneapolis, activist groups Reclaim the Block and
Black Visions Collective Black Visions Collective (BLVC) is an American nonprofit organization for black liberation based in Minnesota, founded in December 2017. The group intersects with transgender and LGBTQ communities. Active in the Minneapolis–Saint Paul metrop ...
requested for the police budget to be cut by $45 million. Members of the
Minneapolis City Council The Minneapolis City Council is the lawmaking body of Minneapolis. It consists of 13 members, elected from separate wards to four-year terms, via a ranked-choice method. The council structure has been in place since the 1950s. In recent elections ...
signed a pledge to dismantle the police and create new public safety systems. City council member Lisa Bender explained, "Our commitment is to end policing as we know it and to recreate systems of public safety that actually keep us safe." In September, the pledge was set aside. Pledge signer Andrew Johnson clarified that he had supported the pledge only in spirit, not literally. Lisa Bender, the council president, said that different interpretations of the pledge by different council members had created confusion. ''The New York Times'' reported that the pledge "has been rejected by the city's mayor, a plurality of residents in recent public opinion polls, and an increasing number of community groups. Taking its place have been the types of incremental reforms that the city's progressive politicians had denounced." By the end of 2020, as the city was dealing with a spike in violent crime, Minneapolis officials agreed to a 4.5 percent shift of the city's $179 million annual police budget to violence prevention programs and non-emergency services, which was far short of the sweeping changes demanded by activists and pledged by local lawmakers in the wake of Floyd's murder. In the 2021 Minneapolis municipal election, voters rejected a ballot measure to amend the city's charter to eliminate a required minimum number of police officers based on the city's population and that would have replaced the police department with a department of public safety. By the end of 2021, city officials had restored police funding in Minneapolis to $191 millionthe funding level prior the resource diversion following the murder of George Floyd in 2020.


Other U.S. cities

In 2020, local policymakers in Philadelphia, Baltimore, Washington, D.C., San Francisco and other US cities have supported some form of defunding or opposing budget increases. In Nashville on June 2, 2020, a city budget hearing lasted over ten hours to accommodate the large numbers of residents waiting to take their turn to ask the city to defund the police. In August 2020, the Austin City Council unanimously voted to cut $150 million, about one third, from the Austin Police Departments budget. About $80 million of the cuts consists of moving several civilian functions from the police department to other parts of city government, and $50 million is for "alternative forms of public safety". The other $20 million is to be reallocated to other city programs including violence prevention,
abortion Abortion is the termination of a pregnancy by removal or expulsion of an embryo or fetus. An abortion that occurs without intervention is known as a miscarriage or "spontaneous abortion"; these occur in approximately 30% to 40% of pre ...
access, and food access. On November 2, 2021, the city of
Des Moines, Iowa Des Moines () is the capital and the most populous city in the U.S. state of Iowa. It is also the county seat of Polk County. A small part of the city extends into Warren County. It was incorporated on September 22, 1851, as Fort Des Moine ...
, elected Indira Sheumaker to the office of
City Council A municipal council is the legislative body of a municipality or local government area. Depending on the location and classification of the municipality it may be known as a city council, town council, town board, community council, rural coun ...
representing Ward 1 of the city—comprising the most diverse neighborhoods in the city. She defeated incumbent Bill Gray on a platform of defunding the police, decentralizing city government, and establishing community owned utilities. During her campaign, Indira was fighting felony charges stemming from an altercation with a police officer at the
Iowa State Capitol The Iowa State Capitol, commonly called the Iowa Statehouse, is in Iowa's capital city, Des Moines. As the seat of the Iowa General Assembly, the building houses the Iowa Senate, Iowa House of Representatives, the Office of the Governor, and the O ...
.


Police unions

The Los Angeles Police Protective League said defunding the police would be the "quickest way to make our neighborhoods more dangerous" and that "at this time ... 'defunding' the LAPD is the most irresponsible thing anyone can propose."


Outside the United States

In Canada, politicians in major cities have expressed interest in diverting some police funds. In Toronto, city councilors
Josh Matlow Josh Matlow (born November 27, 1975) is a Canadian politician who has served on the Toronto City Council representing Ward 12 Toronto—St. Paul's since 2010. Matlow ran as the Ontario Liberal Party candidate in the 2002 Dufferin—Peel—W ...
and Kristyn Wong-Tam have planned to propose a 10% cut to the police budget. Doctors for Defunding the Police have advocated for widespread reforms. In Montreal, Mayor Valérie Plante has said she is in talks about the police budget. In Scotland, a
violence reduction unit The Scottish Violence Reduction Unit is a Police Scotland initiative established in January 2005 (by Strathclyde Police) which uses a public health approach to target all forms of violent behaviour including street/gang violence, domestic abuse ...
run by Police was set up in 2005, which aims to prevent violence with educational and outreach programs. Former British Prime Minister
Tony Blair Sir Anthony Charles Lynton Blair (born 6 May 1953) is a British former politician who served as Prime Minister of the United Kingdom from 1997 to 2007 and Leader of the Labour Party from 1994 to 2007. He previously served as Leader of t ...
criticized ''defund the police'' in a 2021 article for the ''
New Statesman The ''New Statesman'' is a British political and cultural magazine published in London. Founded as a weekly review of politics and literature on 12 April 1913, it was at first connected with Sidney and Beatrice Webb and other leading members ...
'', describing it as "voter-repellent" and "the left's most damaging political slogan since 'the dictatorship of the proletariat. Blair furthermore claimed that the slogan "leaves the right with an economic message which seems more practical and a powerful cultural message around defending flag, family and fireside traditional values." Both the leaderships of the British Labour Party and the
Conservative Party The Conservative Party is a name used by many political parties around the world. These political parties are generally right-wing though their exact ideologies can range from center-right to far-right. Political parties called The Conservative P ...
have pledged not to defund any British police forces.


See also

*
Abolish ICE Abolish ICE is a political movement that seeks the abolition of U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE). The movement gained mainstream traction in June 2018 following controversy of the Trump administration family separation policy. The m ...
* Criminal justice reform * Evidence-based policing *
Ferguson effect The Ferguson effect is an increase in violent crime rates in a community caused by reduced proactive policing due to the community's distrust and hostility towards police. The Ferguson effect was first proposed after police saw an increase in vio ...
*
George Floyd protests The George Floyd protests were a series of protests and civil unrest against police brutality and racism that began in Minneapolis on May 26, 2020, and largely took place during 2020. The civil unrest and protests began as part of internat ...
* Institutional racism * Police abolition movement * Prison abolition movement


References

{{Black Lives Matter Law enforcement Black Lives Matter Politics and race in the United States Race and law in the United States Urban politics in the United States Civil rights in the United States Police misconduct in the United States Political movements in the United States Police abolition movement