Defunding police departments across the nation is a complex and controversial topic that has gained prominence in the wake of the Black Lives Matter protests following the killing of George Floyd by a Minneapolis police officer in 2020. The basic idea of defunding police departments across the nation is to reduce the amount of money allocated to law enforcement agencies, the police department in particular. The reduced money from the police can be redirected to other community programs and services that address the root causes of crimes in society and other social problems such as education, health, housing, and social work. This paper argues against the idea behind defunding the police departments and other law enforcement agencies building on the challenges and difficulties the police department is already exposed to such as recruiting, retaining, and training diverse and qualified officers due to low wages and negative public perception.
Police departments provide essential and valuable services to the common masses such as enforcing laws, investigating crimes, and maintaining security. Defunding police departments and reducing their resources would compromise their ability to perform their functions effectively across the nation. Their withdrawal from their duties and responsibilities would also endanger the well-being and safety of the civilians they serve (Fulton). The idea of defunding and reducing the resources would increase these problems in the communities and lead to more dissatisfaction and demoralization among the police force. Although police departments have a long history of systemic racism, misconduct, and brutality against Black people and people of color, defunding could backfire and provoke more hostility and resistance from the police unions. Moreover, it is a radical and unrealistic approach that needs to be replaced with more realistic, incremental, and moderate reforms such as civilian oversight and body cameras. Therefore, defunding the police is not a viable solution rather communities should support and reform the police by providing them with adequate funding, oversight, training, and equipment as well as holding them accountable for their actions and outcomes (Cobbina-Dungy and Jones-Brown).
In addition, defunding the police is a misguided proposal that would harm the safety of millions of Americans across the nation because it does not mean relocating the funding to some other social works but eliminating police budgets altogether. This would leave communities and people police departments serve more vulnerable to crimes, disorder, and violence because of fewer police officers, fewer police unions, fewer pieces of equipment or resources, and less accountability for the police force. There are many communities in the United States who solely rely on the police force for protection, safety, security, and justice because they suffer the most from crime and violence as 81% of Black Americans prefer having a police force in their neighborhoods to 88% of White Americans (Rushin and Michalski). Defunding the police department would deprive such vulnerable communities of the services of the police force they deserve such as responding to emergency calls, arresting suspects, investigating crimes or violence, and providing victim support. It would also create a power vacuum in the vulnerable communities that could be exploited by private security forces, militias, or gangs which pose a serious threat to the security of the people.
In conclusion, defunding the police force would not address and eliminate the root causes of crimes, violence, injustice, discrimination, and other social evils because social problems require the involvement of the police. If defunded, the police force would be exposed to undermining the trust and cooperation between the police and community which are essential for crime prevention and effective policing. Moreover, police and stakeholders should work together to address the underlying causes and consequences of crime, violence, discrimination, and other social problems by promoting civic engagement, social inclusion, economic opportunities, and human dignity for all.
Works Cited
Cobbina-Dungy, Jennifer E., and Delores Jones-Brown. “Too Much Policing: Why Calls Are Made to Defund the Police.” Punishment & Society, vol. 25, no. 1, 2023, pp. 3–20.
Fulton, Michael J. “Funding of Local Police Departments.” Perspectives on Critical Issues, 2021, p. 238.
Rushin, Stephen, and Roger Michalski. “Police Funding.” Fla. L. Rev., vol. 72, 2020, p. 277.
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