Why should we defund?

What does it mean to "defund the police"?

Ignited by viral footage of police brutality, hundreds of thousands of citizens are demanding city officials to defund police departments—an outcry that has sparked debate across the country.

Defunding the police means reallocating budgets to put more money into underserved areas like education, housing, and mental health programs that address the cycle of poverty. Think about the safest communities in the US. They rarely have a police presence. Why? Because they are well-funded and have great schools, roads, hospitals, and youth programs. It’s become standard for police officers to address situations they aren’t trained to de-escalate or solve. The role of an officer has expanded far beyond the original intention.

The stats

Data shows that 9 out of 10 calls for emergency services are for nonviolent encounters, but police officers are mostly trained in use-of-force tactics and worst-case scenarios to reduce potential threats.

This begs the question...why do we spend billions on police budgets to keep communities safe when only 4% of police time is actually spent handling violent crime? In 2017, cities across the country spent up to 20-45% of their police budgets on policing violence. Meanwhile, social programs that can safely address some of these non-violent scenarios are unable to expand their impact due to limited funding.

There’s room to shrink the budget and reinvest in community programs that can own the parts of the job that could be effectively addressed by other government programs. Defunding the police is not about loss. It means using local funding strategically so that we enrich underserved communities with the resources and programs they need to thrive.

The Hard Truth

The police are currently overfunded. We'll explore how cities have been utilizing their budgets in three of the largest metropolitan cities in the nation: New York, Chicago, and Los Angeles.

New York City

In fact, in 2018 the city paid $230 million for settlements and judgments stemming from 6,472 lawsuits against the NYPD.

Chicago

Now let’s review the Chicago Police Department. The CPD kills Black people at 22.1x the rate of white people.

Los Angeles

Los Angeles Police Department’s scorecard is consistent with this pattern as well. Here's a look at their numbers.

That's a high price tag for police misconduct. The ultimate kicker? Tax payers are footing the bill. If you haven't heard about this it's because a lot of these settlements are veiled behind non-disclosure agreements. This is intentional so there is a lack of public transparency into their misconduct.

Keep this in mind the next time you hear people argue against a proposal for defunding the police.

Case study: Alternative community-based programs

Eugene, Oregon is an example of a city that has invested in alternative community-based organizations that are trained to handle non-violent emergency situations. Let's look at their CAHOOTS program.

The problem

The solution

The CAHOOTS (Crisis Assistance Helping Out On The Streets) model in Eugene, Oregon has become a national example of reimagining public safety. They focus on mental health-related crises, including conflict resolution, welfare checks, substance abuse, and suicide threats.

How it works

The 911 system and police non-emergency number routes calls to CAHOOTS. They dispatch a team that consists of a medic and a trained crisis worker with the appropriate experience to the scene.

The results

• Less violence: out of approximately 24,000 CAHOOTS calls in 2019, police backup was only requested 150 times.
• Reduced costs: The CAHOOTS program budget is $2.1 million annually, while the combined annual budgets for the Eugene and Springfield police departments are $90 million.

In 2017, the CAHOOTS teams answered 17% of the Eugene Police Department’s overall call volume, saving Eugene $8.5 million.

It's important to note while this program has been successful, Black people are only 5.8% of the population in Oregon. We haven't seen effective alternatives at scale yet in bigger states with higher Black populations like New York City and Los Angeles.

Progress so far

Many elected officials in at least 17 cities have already announced or initiated legislation that shifts police funding to other community programs. Los Angeles, for instance, has reallocated $150 million from the LAPD to programs for minority communities. It's important to stay engaged in this conversation and support local defunding proposals. The moment we shift focus so do lawmakers.

Head over to our City Directory to discover which local or national organizations in your community support defunding and how you can stay engaged in your community.