Defund the police – beyond the slogan.

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A FAQ on defunding the police.

What does defund the police even mean? The rally to defund the police is a call to action for communities to change the law enforcement system from the ground up by re-allocating funding spent on police departments to other necessary infrastructure, including violence prevention programs, public housing, health care and mental health care, and education. Learn more >

A more accurate slogan would be "re-allocating some of the police funding into community services, particularly those that support underserved communities, in the hopes of decreasing the burden on police officers for our welfare and giving space to re-imagine a police system that wasn't based on racism and oppression" but that's harder to chant in unison during protests.

The slogan "defund the police" is going to be heard more frequently as we approach elections in November. And the concept itself is radical. So it's not a good sign that the slogan is polling poorly amongst Americans.

"It’s not just about taking away money from the police, it’s about reinvesting those dollars into black communities. Communities that have been deeply divested from, communities that, some have never felt the impact of having true resources. And so we have to reconsider what we’re resourcing. I've been saying we have an economy of punishment over an economy of care."

― Patrisse Cullors in a conversation on WBUR Here & Now

What does abolishing the police mean? This is a more long-term and radical call for not just shifting our investment in law enforcement, but completing re-imagining the entire criminal justice system. Abolitionists are calling for more than just cutting budgets in the short-term. This article from The Nation from 2015 is a good overview.

Does defunding the police mean getting rid of police officers entirely?
No.  Defunding 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", says Christy E. Lopez, a Georgetown Law professor and co-director of the school’s Innovative Policing Program.

MPD150, a Minneapolis-based initiative by organizers aiming to bring "meaningful structural change" to police in the city, are focusing on who responds when someone calls 911. Instead of sending a police officer, they're advocating that instead we could send social workers, mental health care providers and victim or survivor advocates, among others.

This decreases the burden placed on police officers, who are currently tasked to respond to a wide range of requests from their community.

Learn more on this in this USA Today article.

But not all police are bad! Why change everything over bad apples? Yes, not every police officer is racist. Not all police officers kill black people. But this is not the argument. This isn't a conversation about bad apples, but a poisoned orchard. Remember that the police system has systemically hurt black communities throughout time because it's built on a system of racism and white supremacy. Consider:

• 1 in every 1,000 black men can expect to be killed by police (PNAS)

• Minneapolis Police Use Force Against Black People at 7 Times the Rate of Whites (NYTimes)

• Policing in southern slave-holding states had roots in slave patrols – groups of white volunteers empowered to use vigilante tactics to enforce laws related to slavery (The Conversation)

The "bad apples" argument is an incredibly harmful refrain. Not only does it prevent conversations from moving forward, it protects white supremacy and systemic oppression and completely discredits the pain, suffering and grief these "bad apples" have caused to individual families and entire communities impacted by their actions.

But won't there be more crime if there's less law enforcement?
Unlikely. Many citizens are concerned that a decrease in law enforcement will increase crime. But by investing in other systems of support, advocates of defunding the police find this unlikely. In addition, studies have shown that more police doesn't equal less crime, either.  Some police chiefs, including Metropolitan Police Chief Peter Newsham in DC have warned that decreasing police budgets can create inadequate resources for training, which can increase bad policing (read more at DCist), which is a key consideration in how communities should move forward with defunding – ensuring it doesn't impact effectiveness.