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What Does it Mean to Defund the Police?

Calls to defund the police have received both strong support and opposition, as well as great amounts of confusion. To some, it can sound scary – if you know the police as the people who keep you and your community safe and protected, then defunding them might seem like a step toward lawlessness or anarchy.

So what does defunding the police really mean, and why are people demanding it? In literal terms, the goal is to “divest from excessive, brutal, and discriminatory policing and invest in a vision of community safety that works for everyone.” The movement seeks to reduce the power of police by allocating state, city, and county funds away from the police force and toward programs that replace reactive/punitive actions (arrests, jail time, etc.) with non-violent alternatives and preventive measures like unarmed mediation or intervention teams, social workers, healthcare, mental health services, and a restorative justice system.

To many people, this change means a smaller police force with more specific responsibilities related directly to major law enforcement needs. Other services then take the lead on low-level 911 calls and other times when the police are not directly required - for example, deploying medics and addiction counselors to respond to calls about intoxication or drug overdoses, or using case workers to address people reported for sex work. To others, defunding the police changes the current structure of the police force into an entirely new organization. Because police are funded differently by state and local governments, solutions are likely to vary between communities.

Many U.S. cities already have programs in place that remove police power in situations where it isn’t needed. In Minneapolis – where George Floyd was murdered – the city council is working to replace its police force with a new Department of Community Safety and Violence Prevention. The Los Angeles city council approved the first step to replace the LAPD with a community-based, unarmed emergency responders for non-violent calls. Eugene, Oregon, has been using medics and mental health counselors as first responders to certain 911 calls for over 30 years with great success.

In Delaware, both Attorney General Kathy Jennings and the Legislative Black Caucus proposed reforms in early June, and had hoped to  pass them before the June 30 deadline for the 2020 session. The results of their efforts included the passage of Senate Bill 191, which amends the Constitution of the State of Delaware to prohibit discrimination based on race, color or national origin, and a bill that bans police from using chokeholds and knee-holds and makes it a felony for law enforcement to use techniques that can hurt or kill someone due to lack of blood or oxygen flow. The ordinances banning chokeholds and kneeholds have since been tabled, and are expected to be replaced by substitute ordinances at the next New Castle County council meeting on July 28.

While no proposal yet exists to remove funding from police, the Delaware Senate passed as part of its fiscal year 2021 budget a $55 million grant-in-aid bill that includes two new task forces intended to review proposals to increase accountability and promote investments in Delaware’s Black communities. Members of the Wilmington City Council also took a number of steps to address police accountability, including voting to allow the release of applicable Wilmington Police Department manuals to the public; submitting a budget amendment with provisions to implement a police body camera program, and introducing an ordinance to create a board to investigate citizen complaints against members of the city’s police force.


Photo credit: Barry Chin/The Boston Globe

 

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