Why We Should Not Defund the Police

Calls to defund the police have been growing since the death of George Floyd in 2020. But what does it actually mean to defund the police, and is it a good idea? Those who advocate for defunding the police do so because they believe that police are the problem and that by removing funding for police, communities will be spared police brutality. What these advocates of defunding miss is that police do a lot to enforce the law. One need only look at what has been going on in cities like Portland and New York City, where defund the police movements have taken hold. With fewer police to enforce the law, looting, vandalism and random attacks have increased drastically (Sturla et al.). Instead of advocating for defunding, opponents of police brutality should be advocating for better training, higher standards, and improved community relations through the application of community policing.

The defund the police movement is not as homogenous in its views as one might think, first of all. There is a lot of anger in some communities because of perceived injustices, racism, and inequality. Much of that anger has no outlet so it trends towards whatever organizing principle is at hand. In the wake of the death of George Floyd, Black Lives Matter and Antifa became very popular organizations with those angry about various issues: these groups were organized and vocal. So the anger and frustration of communities was naturally funneled into these groups. These groups are left-leaning, radical and often extreme. Rather than look for common ground between the needs of the community and those looking for an end to abuses, these groups called for radical solutionslike defunding the policeand what they meant by this was that they wanted to abolish the police, as has been seen in the creation of autonomous zones in Portland (Arrieta-Kenna). While the anger in various communities is real, the belief that police need to be abolished does not appropriately reflect the concerns of the public. Not everyone who is in anger wants to abolish the police (Koziarski, Huey). However, the defund the police movement is loudest because it is voiced and echoed by these organizations that are active in these communities. People are frustrated by injustice and the perception that police brutality occurs, but the defund the police movement is more a reflection of the radical aims of Black Lives Matter and Antifa than it is of the needs of whole communities.

Police are needed to maintain law and order in society, and police need funding to do that. Funding allows police to recruit, hire and train...…a climate of justice, and it is certainly not how the justice process is meant to work. Higher standards are needed, but individuals with high quality character are also needed to reach and maintain those standards. Finally, improved community relations through the application of community policing can help to heal some of the wounds that currently exist, and it is a way to close some of the gaps between communities and law enforcement. Trust needs to be restored on both sides, and that is one way to do it.

In conclusion, defunding the police is not a viable solution to the problems that communities face when it comes to law enforcement today. Police are needed to protect and to serve the community by enforcing law and order. When police are not enabled to do that, communities can devolve into disorder, chaos and violence. That will then lead to a military-police state, which does not address the underlying issues. Police need funding so that they can recruit, hire and train the most qualified individuals who have the necessary character to achieve and maintain higher standards in law enforcement. They also need to be willing to engage in community policing so that they can bridge the gap between law enforcement and communities, facilitate the development of trust on both sides, and create a…