大象传媒

By now, the refrain is a familiar one鈥攙isible on bobbing signs at Black Lives Matter demonstrations around the world, as a trending hashtag on social media, or written in chalk on neighborhood sidewalks: #DefundPolice.

The heightening call by the Movement for Black Lives, advocates, and activists to divest from the 18,000 police departments in the United States and invest in Black and Brown communities reflects mounting frustrations that police reform and accountability efforts have done little or nothing to arrest police violence in those communities.

The idea of a defunding or divesting from police is not entirely new, and strategies for what it could look like can include everything up to abolition. But at its core, the movement isn鈥檛 really about eliminating all law enforcement from any city overnight. Rather, it鈥檚 about reimagining public safety and realigning priorities so that cities are spending less on militarized police forces and more on services that can lead to a reduction of crime in the first place.

It鈥檚 encouraging to see this call to defund police resonating and being repeated and amplified by so many people.

In the wake of George Floyd鈥檚 killing by Minneapolis police officer Derek Chauvin, lawmakers across the country, from Los Angeles to Minneapolis, Seattle to New York, and the U.S. Capitol are proposing policy measures to cut or loosen ties to traditional policing, which has roots dating back more than 400 years to the .

This week, Congressional Democrats legislation even as , and the democratic presidential nominee, Joe Biden, were the idea of defunding, searching instead for more nuanced language.

The U.S. Conference of Mayors launched a police reform and racial justice working group to devise recommendations on policing.

In Los Angeles, Mayor Eric Garcetti that had been part of a planned increase in the police department鈥檚 budget after activists rallied outside his home.

A of Minneapolis City Council members have pledged to dismantle that city鈥檚 police department, looking for what council president Lisa Bender called a 鈥渢ransformative new approach鈥� after the failure of repeated reform efforts amid the well-publicized deaths of Black people by the police. Councilman Jeremiah Ellison :  鈥淲e are going to dismantle the Minneapolis Police Department. And when we鈥檙e done, we鈥檙e not simply gonna glue it back together.鈥�

And in Seattle, Socialist Council Member Kshama Sawant is building community and city council support around a plan to halve the city鈥檚 $400 million police budget鈥攁bout a quarter of the city鈥檚 general fund鈥攁nd use the money to 鈥渇und grassroots initiatives for restorative justice, housing, health care, and employment and other services.鈥�

鈥淭he same communities, you know, working class communities of color that are targeted by police violence, are also the same communities that are the most disproportionately impacted by the COVID crisis, and this deep recession,鈥� Sawant says.

Across the country, cities have explored other public safety alternatives to traditional policing.

鈥淲e need affordable housing to end the racist gentrification,鈥� she explains. 鈥淲e need jobs for our young people in communities of color and we need to address the Green New Deal.鈥�

The Movement for Black Lives and a coalition of more than 100 other Black rights organizations, citing a 220% increase in police and corrections spending over the past 40 years, wrote an asking people to sign a petition to demand local officials decrease funding for police departments and redirect funds to things such as health care, education, infrastructure, and community programs.

So far, they鈥檝e garnered more than 50,000 signatures.

鈥淔rankly, it鈥檚 encouraging to see this call to defund police resonating and being repeated and amplified by so many people,鈥� said Scott Roberts, senior director of criminal justice campaigns for Color of Change, a racial justice organization that grew out of the aftermath of Hurricane Katrina in 2005.

Roberts says when the group started building out its policy platform alongside other organizations working to address issues affecting Black communities, one of the frames for policing was 鈥渄ivest/invest鈥濃�攔eassessing resources being invested in policing and the overall system of incarceration and investing them in things that keep Black communities safe.

鈥淚t鈥檚 shocking to me that the [divest] part of the demand is the thing that resonated the most with people,鈥� he says. 鈥淚 frankly have been of the belief that you have to talk about the invest part or people wouldn鈥檛 get what you鈥檙e saying.鈥�

The Rev. Harriett Walden understands the challenges inherent in trying to fix the police. Co-founder of Seattle-based Mothers for Police Accountability, she is also co-chair of the Community Police Commission, a civilian body established as part of the agreement between the city of Seattle and the U.S. Department of Justice to develop police reform recommendations.

The Minneapolis police killing of Floyd, she says, 鈥渂roke through the apathy in this country around police violence toward Black people, showing it鈥檚 not normal; it鈥檚 inhumane for one human to do this to another while wearing a uniform…鈥�

The idea of 鈥渄efunding scares a lot of people,鈥� she says, but shouldn鈥檛. 鈥淧olice presence in Black communities has never represented safety.鈥�

We need to create a new structure that will produce a different public safety culture.

Walden says that while police may sometimes de-escalate, many times they can escalate situations, too. 鈥淲e鈥檙e not safer because they come; they come with a presence鈥�,鈥� she says.

Across the country, cities have explored other public safety alternatives to traditional policing.

In 2012, with crime and corruption rampant in Camden, New Jersey, its police department and created a new countywide one with a community focus.

Between 2012 and 2019, violent crime dropped 42% in a city that was routinely named one of the . Officers are encouraged to knock on residents鈥� doors just to say hello or host community cookouts and invite local residents. They are trained to de-escalate situations and have a duty to intervene if they see another officer using excessive force.

In recent days, Camden, a city of 74,000 people across the river from Philadelphia, has been offered up as an example of how a city can disband and rebuild its force, although detractors have criticized, pointing out that the new department, with 400 officers, is even bigger than the one it replaced.

Other cities, meanwhile, are looking for ways to peel away some of the functions of the police. In Eugene, Oregon, for more than 30 years, the White Bird Clinic has operated a mobile mental health crisis intervention team called CAHOOTS, Crisis Assistance Helping Out On The Streets.

The team of trained mental health professionals supports the Eugene Police Department by responding to crisis situations, de-escalations, behavioral and mental health problems, intoxication calls, and even welfare checks鈥攐ften unarmed and without police backup.

In the wake of Floyd鈥檚 killing and the national protests, CAHOOTS has been taking inquiries from cities across the country and explaining how the model could play a role in police reform. are considering it.

In 2015, the mayor of Newark, New Jersey, created the Newark Community Street Team, as a for community-based violence. With the motto 鈥榶ou can鈥檛 have public safety without the public,鈥� the program hires, trains, and deploys outreach workers and high-risk interventionists to engage high-risk intervention, including those at risk for becoming a victim or perpetrator of violence, and support crime survivors in the South Ward and West Ward of Newark鈥攚hile building trust.

Roberts of Color of Change says that as a society, we have been socialized to rely on the police for so many issues and that has in turn led to the over-policing in Black communities. 鈥淚 tell people all the time, 鈥榡ust think about a safe community. What does it look like? There鈥檚 not a cop on every corner.  It has economic stability. Quality schools. People have health care and jobs.鈥�

鈥淚n fact, if you do see a cop on every corner in a neighborhood, you know you鈥檙e in a dangerous place. The police will never get a community to a point where it is thriving.鈥�

Norm Stamper, who was the chief of police in Seattle during the more than a decade ago and has written a book about fixing America鈥檚 police, has long advocated for a partnership system between the community and public safety officials鈥攕omething he refers to as the People鈥檚 Police.

Stamper calls the nation鈥檚 cop culture 鈥渢oxic and dysfunctional,鈥� one that gives rise to the likes of Derek Chauvin, the former Minneapolis police officer who knelt on Floyd鈥檚 neck for close to nine minutes.

鈥淪o the question becomes, 鈥業s there anything that we can do differently that has not been recommended or attempted through consent decrees or blue-ribbon commissions and task forces that would actually reduce the kind of horrific behavior that we saw in Minneapolis on May 25?鈥欌��

It鈥檚 time, he says, to acknowledge that what we鈥檙e doing is not working. 鈥淲e need to create a new structure that will produce a different public safety culture.鈥�