Get the Facts About Defunding Police

Simply put- this affects everyone. Police departments are already being affected with huge budget cuts and extra pressure to provide better training and reform with a fraction of the budgets that they need. New York City has already passed a motion to shift $1 billion from policing, and other major cities are following suit. The Minneapolis City Council has gone so far as to pass measures to completely dismantle its police force and replace it with a department of community safety and violence prevention. What does that mean? No one knows at the moment.

These moves will affect every citizen- although this will be especially prominent in big cities that already have high crime rates and lack of support for police officers. We don’t yet know the full extent of defunding police- but we DO know that it will cause even more problems in the long term.

• More policing is necessary to confront violent crime in larger and emerging cities.  Community-based policing has been proven to reduce the homicide rate in NYC in the 1990s.
• Defunding the police would lead to more chaos and increased crime in areas that are already seeing increases. 
• Would require more police officers to work overtime. In some departments, this leads to decreased officer morale and increased burnout.
• Decreased budget means lack of training and resources- including de-escalation, use of force, and cultural awareness training

Don’t defund- redirect funding to training. 

Consider LEO civil disturbance response standards. Police and LEOs are only provided “offensive weapons” (batons, OC spray, etc) so that’s what they use.

Need to be equipped with and trained on the use of shields, IPC skills, de-escalation techniques.

Need to be educated on non-lethal equipment (more accurately called less-than-lethal), etc.

Learn and understand rules on the use of force, use of force continuum.

Funding for cultural awareness training.

At least 16 major cities are considering measures to defund police, although this is not an exhaustive list. News is coming out constantly on cities that are defunding or dismantling police departments, and while many have not been passed yet- it is not looking good.

There are also measures that are flying under the radar, including in Georgia where they recently passed a measure to allow voters to completely dismantle county police departments. This measure sets a dangerous precedent that may be replicated elsewhere in the country as these calls to defund and disband departments by anti-cop activists continue to grow louder.

Show your support for police officers by reaching out to your local and state governement officials and demand that instead of defunding police they REFUND and REDISTRIBUTE funds to important training and resources that will help officers police more effectively and create community relationships.

Sign our Petition to Restore Respect for Police! Our officers need to know they are not alone and there are many proud citizens that still respect and defend our heroes in blue.