Can Elections Still Help Defund Police?

Efforts to invest in 鈥渃are, not cops鈥� continue in advance of the 2024 election鈥攁lbeit at a slower pace than in 2020.

The movement to shift funding away from policing and prisons and into social services and public safety programs gained significant traction four years ago during the George Floyd protests. Led by racial justice groups, including Black Lives Matter, protestors poured into the streets nationwide, carrying placards and chanting slogans such as 鈥淐are Not Cops!鈥� and 鈥�Defund the Police!鈥澛�

Chris Harris, policy director at the , explains that the 2020聽demands were rooted in a vision of public safety that ensures communities have access to 鈥渄ifferent means by which people get their needs met, [and] that people鈥檚 needs are actually being met, and they鈥檙e not just being sent police because that is the only public service that the community has invested in or that鈥檚 available.鈥� By the time the general election rolled around that November, however, establishment figures, including soon-to-be President Joe Biden, were from the demand to defund the police. Cities such as , , Austin, and Los Angeles that took initial steps to cut police funding in response to protesters鈥� demands soon faced challenges.听

Today, the struggle to realize the movement鈥檚 central goal of reimagining public safety continues in the streets, the conference rooms of community justice organizations, and in discussions around government budgets despite roadblocks and a lack of mainstream support.

鈥淭he importance of this work is to see public dollars invested in and meeting the needs of people in our community and prioritizing those who have been historically marginalized,鈥� says Harris.

Following the George Floyd protests, some cities initially made big changes, shifting hundreds of millions of dollars of city funds away from law enforcement. In August 2020, the city council in Austin, Texas, to the city鈥檚 police department budget totaling about $150 million over a year and to reallocate those funds to violence prevention, food access, and abortion access programs. That November in Los Angeles, California, , requiring that 10% of the county鈥檚 unrestricted general funds, totaling between $360 million and $900 million per year, be invested in social services and prohibiting the county from using the money on prisons, jails, or law enforcement agencies.

These wins soon faced establishment opposition. A superior court judge in Los Angeles issued a tentative ruling just months after voters approved it, claiming it improperly restricted the L.A. County Board of Supervisors from deciding how and where to spend county funds (an appellate court and upheld the measure last year). Meanwhile, the Texas state legislature passed , which levied penalties against cities that reduced police budgets. This legislation forced Austin to halt plans to reallocate police department funds and restore funds it had cut from its police budget the previous year. Similar legislation is being to ensure that even in cases of a city budget shortfall, 鈥渢he police department will be the last department that would be defunded,鈥� according to Representative David Marshall, one of the bill鈥檚 Republican sponsors.

Democratic politicians on Capitol Hill have also rejected calls to defund the police, even condemning Republican-led moves that would in federal budget appropriations using the talking point that 鈥渄efund[ing] law enforcement hurts communities.鈥� During his 2022 , President Joe Biden declared that when faced with questions about safety and justice, 鈥淲e should all agree the answer is not to defund the police.鈥� During Biden鈥檚 tenure, in 2023, by U.S. law enforcement than in any other year in the past decade. Since 2020, state and local governments in have also green-lit militarized police training facilities, some with federal funding.听

Research shows that the growing militarization of police forces nationwide communities and disproportionately worsens law enforcement outcomes for marginalized groups, such as disabled people and people of color. Claims that funding police training could help better protect communities fall flat, too, with research showing that even training programs designed against marginalized groups do not improve police interactions with those communities.听

Communities of color have led the movement against police violence for decades, recognizing that the institution of policing is rooted in racism. 鈥淗istorically, those who were involved in lynching people in our community were local judges and sheriffs up into the 1950s and 鈥�60s. We have continued to have similar incidents with police departments and abuse,鈥� says April Albright, legal director of .听

With stubborn opposition from both sides of the aisle to reducing police budgets, organizers have shifted tactics. Harris says community leaders in Austin are now focused on preventing the city鈥檚 police budget from growing. They are also working on allocating funding from the city鈥檚 general fund in ways that align with some of the aims of movements to defund the police through a .

鈥淭his is a community-built and collaborated-upon set of budget recommendations at the city level, designed to invest in the community with a focus on equity, meaning particularly folks who have historically had their neighborhoods and communities disinvested by the city,鈥� explains Harris. 鈥淲e鈥檙e pushing forward for recommendations to see services, programs, and direct dollars given to people in those communities.鈥� A similar budget-focused initiative is .

Starting the struggle with budget allocations is practical. 鈥淢ost budgets鈥攚hether at the municipal level, county level, state, or national level鈥攁lmost a lion鈥檚 share of these budgets are committed to public safety. And what safety looks like, traditionally, is law enforcement,鈥� says Albright. Most cities dedicate of their budgets to policing.

Recommendations in Austin鈥檚 annual community investment budget include funding harm-reduction services, homeless services for Black youth and adults, emergency rental assistance, and alternative forms of first response to reduce police interactions with community members in crisis. 鈥淲e have community health paramedics and community health workers [who] have proved pivotal in responding to both health and mental health issues in the community, particularly among unhoused folks, and connecting folks with services rather than pushing them into the criminal legal system,鈥� explains Harris.听

When armed police are dispatched to an individual in crisis, especially those experiencing a mental health crisis, results can be deadly: According to at least 20% of those killed in a police shooting since 2015 were experiencing a mental health crisis at the time.听

Austin is one of dozens of cities to non-police first-response programs since 2020. Early research on these programs suggests that not only do they improve outcomes for people in crisis but they also . The public agrees: According to a recent national survey, think 鈥渟ending behavioral health care workers to certain calls related to mental health, substance use and homelessness鈥� would help improve public safety.

Efforts like those in Austin have also garnered some institutional support, with organizations such as the American Civil Liberties Union (ACLU) backing them as evidence-based approaches to community safety. 鈥淲e鈥檙e looking at shifting the paradigm in community safety to more front-end, solutions-driven approaches,鈥� explains Cynthia W. Roseberry, director of the Justice Division at the ACLU.听

The ACLU recently held its on Capitol Hill to brief Congress and the White House on research showing the success of non-police first-response programs and investments in solutions to prevent crime, including addressing rising housing costs and improving access to mental health care. One of the ACLU鈥檚 asks to Congress was for $100 million to be earmarked for mobile crisis response in the appropriations process, which Roseberry says was well received by lawmakers.

There are legislative efforts already underway to reimagine public safety and first responses. Arguably, none is more promising than . This legislation, introduced by U.S. Representative Cori Bush in 2021, would establish a Division on Community Safety within the Department of Health and Human Services and provide funding for noncarceral first responders, restorative justice, and harm-reduction-based mental health and substance use treatment programs for communities nationwide.

Albright says that recent actions to stop Cop City in Atlanta, Georgia, and high-profile brutal crackdowns on pro-Palestine protests on college campuses have brought the demand to defund police back into the national spotlight and could help spur change. 鈥淐op City and the movement against cop cities around the country, as well as what we see happening on campuses鈥� is renewing the cry for folks to find a way to redirect the funds that are normally given to law enforcement to other areas,鈥� she says.

While the demand to defund the police may not have the sort of establishment lip service it got four years ago, organizers say the issue remains top-of-mind in communities nationwide and will be on the ballot this fall. 鈥淲e have to join forces and use every tool that we have available鈥攆rom voting to protests to boycotts, whatever it is,鈥� Albright says. 鈥淗istory shows us that when we do that, we win.鈥�