Law professors Stephen Rushin and Roger Michalski, writing in the Florida Law Review in 2020, suggest that widespread defunding of police departments “could increase crime rates, hamper efforts to control officer misconduct, and reduce officer safety.”
Who benefits from defunding the police?
Defunding the police would, in theory, lead to the creation of new jobs in these areas. And it could lead to spending on training people to fill those jobs, as well as on the infrastructure and support staff needed to make sure new social workers or mediators or paramedics are successful in their work.
What are the positives of defunding the police?
Defunding them could reduce violence against people of color and overall crime. Police officer and police department reforms have not worked. Police are not trained and were not intended to do many of the jobs they perform. Defunding the police allows experts to step in.
Where does the money from defunding the police go?
“Those dollars can be used to fund schools, hospitals, housing and food in those communities, too — “all of the things we know increase safety,” Phillip McHarris, a doctoral candidate in sociology at Yale University and lead research and policy associate at the Community Resource Hub for Safety and Accountability, told Mar 4, 2021
What would happen if the police were defunded?
But it's not only that — defunding the police places a greater strain on existing officers and reduces the likelihood that they'll quit or perform their jobs ineffectively because they're burned out. And, a proposal from the Mayor's Office could reduce the police force even further.