Defund the Police
Take Action to Reimagine Community Safety
Police killed over 400 people in the first half of 2021 according to the Mapping Police Violence project. While the murder of George Floyd ignited a worldwide call for police accountability and the defense of Black lives, more remains to be done. Defund the police is a movement to divest taxpayer dollars from policing and law enforcement activities and invest the savings in public safety measures that support community needs and create the conditions for everyone to thrive. This makes all of us safer. Yet there is a big misinformation campaign about the movement.
Here’s what you can do about it.
Imagine a new vision of public safety
There is a growing recognition that a focus on policing and criminalization does not prevent violence or crime and is often not an effective response to violence. Community-based programs that invest in our well-being, focus on meeting the basic needs of working-class and low-income communities, and emphasize prevention over punishment make communities stronger and keep us safer. By prioritizing things like social support, economic opportunity, education, and public health, we can create more effective methods of providing safety and security to our communities.
When Congresswomen Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez was asked what a community with defunded police looks like, she responded:
“It looks like a suburb. Affluent white communities already live in a world where they 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 because they have more resources to support healthy society in a way that reduces crime.”
Click here for the full quote.
Create political will and build power
There are a lot of misconceptions about what defunding the police means. In fact, there are various points of view along the continuum from reforming the police in order to reduce harm - to abolishing the police completely. No matter where you fall, there are actions you can take to build support for defunding the police in your community. Policing policies are decided at the local level (think city council, school board). An active and vocal constituency can make a big difference. Here are a few actions you can take:
Talk to your friends and family to get them on board and make sure they understand the basic concepts and are well-informed when they confront misinformation.
Follow your elected officials on social media to engage them in conversation and show your support for defunding the police.
Directly contact local elected officials asking them to defund the police. Particularly those involved in drafting and approving your city budget. (Think: city council, county council or county board, and mayors.) Check out our post How to Contact Your Reps.
Pay attention to local elections and get out the vote for candidates who support divesting from harmful police practices and investing in communities. Local elections are crucial to these efforts and a handful of votes can make the difference.
Write a letter to the editor of your local newspaper to voice your support.
Attend city council meetings, town halls, open houses, etc. to move your elected officials toward action.
Need some talking points? Visit defundthepolice.org. Read this defund the police toolkit by Interrupting Criminalization and M4BL. Also check out M4BL’s, Invest-Divest strategy, talking points by Indivisible and the ACLU, and this collection of articles from Transform Harm.
Not sure who your elected officials are or how to contact them? Check out our posts Who Are My Reps and How to Contact Your Reps.
Women and trans people of color are often left out of the conversation on police violence, as are the compounding vulnerabilities of sex workers and immigrants of color. Read Incite’s toolkit to incorporate gender analysis and an intersectional approach to ending police violence.
Political will is the commitment to undertake actions to achieve a certain goal or set of objectives. In order to create political will, you must convince decision-makers that support for your cause is in their best interest and/or in the best interest of the people. You have to show them the benefits of supporting your position over that of the opposition which often includes their party’s (or institution’s) leadership and powerful lobbyists.
Change city budgets: divest from law enforcement and invest in communities
Join advocates in calling for city officials to cut police spending with the intention of reducing the size of the force and the scope of operations - and reinvest the savings in programs that meet community needs and create the conditions for everyone to thrive. The defund the police movement goes far beyond reallocating police budgets in its vision for safe and healthy communities, but it’s a good place to start.
Sign this petition by Color of Change to let your elected officials know you support defunding the police.
Work with your community to develop a shared vision of community safety, define the needs and priorities that are specific to your context, and implement your strategy. Use this toolkit and supplement to become a defund the police advocate in your community, created by Interrupting Criminalization and M4BL. Also, check out this collection of tools from Critical Resistance.
Research your city’s budgeting process and how you can advocate to reallocate the budget.
Read M4BL’s policy platform to go beyond budget reallocations.
Pass policy and legislation
Pass the Breathe Act
The Breathe Act calls for divesting taxpayer dollars from brutal and discriminatory policing and instead investing in a new vision of public safety. Visit Movement for Black Lives (M4BL) take action page and commit to at least one action in support of the Breathe Act.
Note: The George Floyd Justice in Policing Act is also making its way through Congress. Progressives and advocates overwhelmingly support the Breathe Act instead of the Justice in Policing Act. This is because the Justice in Policing Act offers a flawed root cause analysis, does not adequately address failures within the system, and includes several provisions to increase police funding. Join in solidarity by supporting the Breathe Act.
End qualified immunity
Support the Ending Qualified Immunity Act introduced by Congresswoman Ayanna Pressley (MA-07) and Senator Edward J. Markey (D-MA). Qualified immunity shields police officers and other government employees from being held responsible for egregious acts and breaking the law. Ending qualified immunity is an important first step into improving police accountability.
Contact your members of Congress with this Color of Change petition.
Support programs that advance alternatives to policing
Police are called upon more and more to intervene in situations in which they are not qualified. Think: situations involving mental health, drug use, unhoused people*, and domestic abuse (child, elder, partner). When police respond without proper skills and training, they can escalate the situation and produce negative outcomes that disproportionately impact Black, Indigenous, and people of color (BIPOC). There are many successful programs that offer alternatives to policing in these situations. Advocate for your community to implement a program that meets your town’s needs.
Divert mental health, non-violent, and minor dispute calls from 911 to a special 211 or 311 number.
Deploy community mediators and social workers as first responders in mental health, non-violent, and minor disputes calls.
Institute directives to ensure unarmed responses to non-criminal complaints.
Support violence prevention and violence interrupter programs that engage community members to mediate conflicts before they escalate into violence.
Remove police from schools. Learn more at Dignity In Schools and then contact your school board to learn their stance and to advocate for investment in counselors not cops.
Read Black Lives Matter’s reimagining of a new system which further calls for solutions such as:
Ending practices such as “stop-and-frisk” or traffic stops that often unfairly target Black people.
Shifting focus from policing to investigating (think: social workers, forensic scientists, doctors, and researchers who are specialized in investigation) in order to prevent and respond to crime.
Preventing and responding to gender-based violence through social programs.
CAHOOTS, in Eugene, Oregon has been touted as a great example to learn from, yet it’s important to remember that Eugene is racially homogenous compared to many cities. There is no one-size-fits-all program. You have to find what’s right for your community. For inspiration, see pgs 14-17 of the defund the police toolkit and this Bloomberg article highlighting other programs.
Some people believe that “homeless” can have derogatory connotations by implying that one is “less than”. They might say that since home is where the heart is, people are not actually homeless, they are unhoused or unsheltered. When in doubt, use the term that people with lived experience in your community prefer.
Improve police-community relations
Reducing the size of the force and the scope of police operations, investing the savings in social programs, and building up alternatives to policing takes time. Therefore, some people are working alongside law enforcement on solutions to improve police-community relations. If this is a route your community is pursuing, please ensure that these types of solutions are funded in addition to social programs, not instead of them. The Law Enforcement Action Partnership suggests:
Improving agency support to officers through mental health support and harm reduction training (think de-escalation, mediation, and bias), and better funding for victim assistance programs.
Abolishing laws and practices that pit police against the community (e.g., the war on drugs, civil asset forfeitures, arrest quotas, stop and frisk, etc.).
Involving community members in public safety-decision making.
For more harm reduction solutions, check out this list of the NAACP Legal Defense Fund (LDF) demands for accountability and reform. It includes things like:
Prohibiting all police neck hold maneuvers, including chokeholds.
Prohibiting racial profiling.
Eliminating federal programs that provide military equipment to law enforcement.
Developing a national database of officers who have been fired due to misconduct.
Removing police from schools.
For more police reform solutions, check out the Center for Policing Equity. They offer tools to assess and identify specific areas for improvement and reform in your local law enforcement agencies using their Toolkit for Equitable Public Safety.
Look for unintended consequences
Even the most well-intentioned policies can have unintended consequences. It’s important to evaluate policies and legislation in practice and modify their implementation when unintended consequences are discovered. For example:
Policies to ensure unarmed responses to non-criminal complaints have sometimes seen the unintended consequence of some communities - such as the unhoused and the mentally ill - being unfairly defaulted into a “criminal” vs “non-criminal” category, defeating the purpose of the policy.
Advocating for de-escalation and bias training for police without ensuring increased funding to social programs simply redirects police funding from a more harmful police function to a less harmful police function, versus reducing the overall police budget.
Donate | Follow | Amplify
These national groups are leading efforts to defund the police and disseminating information on how everyday people can stay engaged. Donate to support their work. Follow for updates and urgent action alerts. Amplify their message to raise awareness.
Or find a local chapter in your community to support.
Check out our posts Making the Most of Your Monetary Donations and What Is A Nonprofit to increase your impact when you donate.
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Originally published May 25, 2021.
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