A comprehensive guide to what it means to defund the police
Photo: Jamie Squire/Getty Images As thousands of protesters across the country have gathered to demand justice for George Floyd, Breonna Taylor, and other black people killed by the police, a related rallying cry has gained momentum: defund the police. It’s an idea that’s been popular among activists and critics of the criminal-justice system for decades. In the past two weeks, though, it’s gained unprecedented support — and national media attention.
What does it mean to defund the police? Defunding the police does not necessarily mean getting rid of the police altogether. Rather, it would mean reducing police budgets and reallocating those funds to crucial and oft-neglected areas like education, public health, housing, and youth services.
The amount of money the United States spends on policing is staggering: According to a recent analysis, the sum is $115 billion, which is bigger than nearly every other country’s military budget. In most cities, the police budget dwarves those for education, housing, and other crucial services. For example, Los Angeles’s proposed police budget for 2021 is $1.8 billion — more than half of the city’s total spending for the year.
When police investigate a crime involving a black victim, evidence shows that the clearance rate drops significantly: A 2014 New York Daily News investigation found that police solved about 86 percent of homicides when the victim was white. When the victim was black, the clearance rate dropped to 45 percent.
Another reason reforms haven’t been tenable, advocates say, is police unions. The purpose of police unions is “to win members better salaries and benefits and to protect their job security — specifically by pushing for safeguards against investigation, discipline, and dismissal,” Daniel DiSalvo, a political-science professor at the City College of New York, writes in the Washington Post.
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