By: Christine Obiamalu

What has been brought to light this year is the power of the police force and how out of control it is. 

• George Floyd in Minnesota, Breonna Taylor in Kentucky, and Rayshard Brooks (2020).

• Atatiana Jefferson in Miami (2019).

• Stephon Clark in Sacramento, California (2018)

• Botham Jean, Dallas (2018)

• Philando Castille in Minnesota (2016)

• Alton Sterling in Louisiana (2016)

• Eric Garner New York (2014)

• Michael Brown in Missouri (2014)

•  12-year-old Tamir Rice in Cleveland, Ohio (2014)

And countless others. Each time we watch the news and see another black life taken by police violence. I wonder how we can go about living in a world where police officers bring distress instead of protection.

 Three weeks of protests later, US citizens started demanding that the United States abolish the police. Let us be clear that abolishing the police does not mean eradicating them completely. Police abolishment means reducing police budgets and investing that money into public services and communities of color, as well as delegating certain police responsibilities to other organizations. It means decreasing and eliminating the reliance on policing.

 Others have called for police reform, instead of abolishment. However, it has been proven time and time again that police reform does not work. Police reforms, sometimes referred to as “procedural reforms” are changes to the police department protocols like mindfulness, implicit bias training and police-community dialogues. These reforms cost cities millions and sometimes billions of dollars. 

Minneapolis was a model for police reforms. 

However, their efforts have been proven to be ineffective in police violence, as we can see with George Floyd’s case. Reformists need to understand that the problem is systematic and institutional and that the problem is institutional rather than situational. This is not the case of a few bad apples, that reform could fix, but rather the whole force. 

NYPD 2019 budget was $5,668,823,00, with about 88% going into personal service, meaning salaries and wages, including overtime. The average pay for police officers was more than $90,000 in 2019 and as high as $190,000 for captains, including overtime. In comparison to other budgets in the city; Homeless services being $2,061,776,00, Housing Preservation and Development, $1,142,480,000, Youth and Community Development, $872,141,000, Health and Hospitals, $699,460,000 and Parks and Rec $534,072,000, the total NYPD’s operating budget is more than the total of the other city service budgets mentioned. 

Police officers are usually trained for about 21 weeks and are mostly trained to use-of-force tacts and worse-case scenarios tactics to reduce potential threats. Compared to other police forces in other countries like Norway which require 3 years of training or Finland and Iceland requiring 2 years. Which beckons the question: does NYPD needs $6 billion dollars to operate if they are not even getting the training that other countries make a priority? 

In addition, it’s important to note that this budget does not include the NYPD’s centralized expenses; $5.2 billion to cover pensions and benefits, $411 million in city capital funds for cars and precincts, $230 million in settlements from lawsuits (which is very concerning considering the small number of cases/complaints that actually go to trial) and $211 million spent on debt services which are all not initials factors into the budget. When you calculate all these expenses, the NYPD costs New York City $11,452,000,000.

Since 2004, the number of active police officers has been decreasing while the budget continues to increase. It doesn’t make sense for the NYPD budget to increase while other important city services budgets like schools, hospitals, community programs, etc. continue to be cut and defunded. Because of the slash of these budgets, infrastructures in poor communities continue to deteriorate and the solution from our government is to over police these areas instead of improving their communities. Which in turn has led to police related deaths in communities of color.

One of the main concerns with defunding and decreasing the police force is crime rate as well as violent crimes like murder and rape where you may wonder who will help you.

But did you know that only 5% of all arrests are violent crimes and only 1% of arrests are for murder? That means 94% of arrests in the United States are for non-violent offenses. Data also shows that 9 out of 10 calls for police services are for nonviolent encounters. This doesn’t mean a situation cannot turn violent, but we have seen numerous times that the police can actually escalate a situation instead of deescalating it. 

 Dallas has created a new approach were instead of police officers, social workers are dispatched to some 911 calls, ones that usually involve mental health emergencies. The program has shown to be successful, with many people receiving the care that they need. Care they would have not gotten in jails or overcrowded hospitals. Imagine instead of police officers,Garrett Rolfe and Devin Brosnan being called to the Wendy’s in Atlanta, the night of Rayshard Brooks murder, a skilled social worker had come to check on him and escort him home. Rayshard would still have been alive today. 

 Other cities that has taken steps to abolish the police is Camden New Jersey, San Francisco California, Sunnyvale California,Portland, Oregon and even Minneapolis City recently. 

 With all that said what exactly does defunding the police actually look like. Congresswoman Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez puts it best;

“The good news is that it actually doesn't take a ton of imagination. 

It looks like a suburb. Affluent white communities already live in a world where the choose to fund youth, health, housing etc. more than they fund police. These communities have lower crime rates not because they have more police, but bc they have more resources to support healthy society in a way that reduces crime.

When a teenager or preteen does something harmful in a suburb (I say teen bc this is often where lifelong carceral cycles begin for Black and Brown communities), White communities bend over backwards to find alternatives to incarceration for their loved ones to "protect their future," like community service or rehab or restorative measures. Why don't we treat Black and Brown people the same way? Why doesn't the criminal system care about Black teens' futures the way they care for White teens' futures? Why doesn't the news use Black people's graduation or family photos in stories the way they do when they cover White people (eg Brock Turner) who commit harmful crimes? Affluent White suburbs also design their own lives so that they walk through the world without having much interruption or interaction with police at all aside from community events and speeding tickets (and many of these communities try to reduce those, too!)

Just starting THERE would be a dramatically and radically different world than what we are experiencing now.”

One consistent finding in the social sciences is that, in order to reduce crime, education equity and establishment of work infrastructure is the best approach. A study, using 60 years of data, found that an increase in police funding did not relate to the decrease of crime. Crime is a response to social conditions so redirecting these public funds will not only reduce crime and increase safety but will also uplift these communities.

In conclusion, abolishing the police does not mean that when you dial 911 no one will be to respond to your emergency, rather the right person with the right skills will respond. An amazing campaign that has more information is “8 to Abolition” plan,2put together by young organizers and scholars. This campaign includes defunding police authorities, encourages de-incarceration, accessible housing, and decriminalizing Black, Brown, and poor communities.