Police abolition grows from prison abolition, a movement shaped in the late 1990s by groups like Critical Resistance and scholars such as Angela Davis and Ruth Wilson Gilmore. Its argument is that police mainly respond after harm happens, and that most calls involve poverty, mental illness or conflict that armed officers are not trained to solve.
Abolition is a long-term project, not an overnight switch. Abolitionists back what they call non-reformist reforms: changes that shrink police size and power rather than expand it. Examples include sending trained clinicians to mental health calls, ending traffic enforcement by armed police, and cutting police budgets to fund services.
The idea moved into mainstream debate after the 2020 uprisings following George Floyd's murder. Critics call it unrealistic. Supporters point out that the US already relies on many non-police systems for safety, and that policing has not ended the racial harm it was built to enforce.