Generating new sources of business and revenue.

Blog

The Bridge

BLOG

The Bridge

Do you want to amp up your company generated business game? The Bridge is where the real estate, relocation and mobility industry can discover how taking a new path doesn’t have to be scary. Teresa R. Howe is an expert in her field with years of successful program and services development and management. She has a passion for helping companies be the best they can be. Do you want more revenue, more customers and better experience management? Get tips on how to compete more effectively in a world of constant change and disruption. You might also come across some random thoughts that just pop into her head.

What Does Defunding the Police Really Mean?

My name is Bailey Howe and I am a rising senior at the University of Maryland, College Park. I am a double major in Criminology and Criminal Justice, as well as Government and Politics and I have a minor in International Development and Conflict Management. Essentially, I study all things politics, conflict resolution and law enforcement internationally, as well as here in America.

Lately, you’ve heard a lot of people talking about defunding the police, but not everything you’re reading is an accurate depiction. I am not here to change your opinion of it, I am writing to explain what the concept of ‘defunding’ is and what it means for the criminal justice system. It basically means taking some of the extreme funds given to law enforcement and investing the money in communities in need, as well as in social services. It does not mean eliminating the police or to stop funding them.

Defunding the police leads the way for mental health experts and domestic violence experts along with other groups to take over some of the calls police officers receive. Many officers are not trained well enough in how to de-escalate domestic violence situations or help a homeless person get the mental help or drug treatment they need without resorting to violence. They also receive a lot of calls for issues such as minor traffic accidents and drug overdoses, minor disturbances along with other non-emergency and non-violent calls that could be handled by other departments or organizations that would be better funded and designated for non-violent calls. Law enforcement are often stretched thin while dealing with disputes or providing safety for schools. Both the police and their critics have at times questioned whether social workers or other trained workers would be better equipped for those duties. These organizations would work in tandem with the police when the situation was deemed violent or dangerous.

Many cities post data regarding how their police force spends their time. All of this data has been posted in the Uniform Crime Report that is mandated by all police departments to update. The overall share of time devoted to handling violent crime is very small, about 4 percent, says a recent article by authors, Jeff Asher and Benjamin Horwitz, who are crime analysts and co-founders of AH Datalytics. In Seattle, for example, responses to traffic accidents and enforcement make up over15 percent of all calls for service so far in 2020, while 15 percent of incidents in New Orleans fall in the “complaint other” category. Domestic violence calls that were deemed not violent crimes have taken 7.3 percent of officer’s time, while roughly a third of time has been spent responding to calls regarding complaints, traffic accidents and noncriminal disturbances. Similar patterns hold in Montgomery County in Maryland and Sacramento. In Montgomery County this year, officers spent 4.1 percent of their time responding to calls for violent crime, including 0.1 percent on homicides. Officers in Sacramento spent 3.7 percent of their time responding to serious violent crime and 0.1 percent handling homicides and firearm assaults.

Police also spend a huge amount of time on reporting and paperwork when not in the field. With more effective management of time and resources, police could make their time in the field be more impactful dealing with the public on life threatening issues and keeping the peace. By making a larger investment in community health and safety, we can address the underlying root causes of violence and crime. We would need fewer police and we could pay and train them better. They would have a very specific job description.  

What defunding does NOT mean is disbanding the police force. Those calling for the abolishment of the police should be calling for an entirely reformed system led by community members who focus on public safety. This is an entirely different model than the one we currently have which is Community Oriented Policing. Defunding the police is not a radical idea for a government funded entity. For years, government has been defunding education, as well as Planned Parenthood.

Because of the recent events in the news, there is a heightened awareness and many people have a fear of police and a hostility towards them. The police brutality we are seeing all over the news is not a new trend though, there is just a greater focus on them due to body cameras, social media and smart phones with cameras recorded by the public. We are able to see actual events unfold with no ability to be covered up. Statistically, unarmed black people are more likely to be fatally shot by a police officer over any other race. As the chart below shows, from MappingPoliceViolence.org, significantly more black people were fatally shot by police from 2013-2019. According the Uniform Crime Report uploaded by the FBI, in 2016, more than 5 million white people were arrested while only 2 million black people were arrested for all types of crime. This data shows that the stereotype that black people commit more crime is untrue and an unfair assumption.

The current approach to funding our law enforcement is severely broken and the funds they receive does not have enough going towards training programs or independent review boards or Internal Affairs units. By reallocating funds within the police to focus more on training programs and accountability units, we would see improvement over time, but it is a long process to reverse the existing culture. For example, the LAPD has a 2020 budget of $1.7 billion and the NYPD has a $5.6 billion budget. These are extreme numbers and a portion could be used to assist groups in need and the most vulnerable communities of color with social issues such as income inequality and homelessness. Community based services such as gang intervention, outreach services, drug treatment, mental health services, skills training, affordable housing and youth programs are the answer instead of continuing to expand the size of detention centers.

The key to police reform is to better train and hold the police more accountable and to redirect funds to groups that are better equipped to help respond to specific types of calls and to help prevent issues before they arise through improved community resources and education.

“You may not agree with what I have conveyed here, but I think everyone agrees…we need police reform.” ~ Bailey Howe

MappingPoliceViolence.org

MappingPoliceViolence.org

Teresa Howe