Defund the Police (slogan)

“Defund the police” is a slogan used by various activist groups to advocate for the divestment and reallocation of police department budgets to other public safety and community support measures such as social services, housing, education, and health care. The slogan is used with varying intentions to support modest to drastic reductions in police department funding. Some activists use the slogan to advocate for the complete elimination of the current policing system and the institution of a reformed police service. Those who support more funding toward community services argue that such investments will deter crime and make high rates of policing unnecessary while also reducing incarceration rates. The “defund the police” slogan gained international traction in the wake of the George Floyd protests in June 2020. The phrase itself has existed for many decades, while the idea behind police reform stretches back even farther. Critics of the movement believe that defunding police departments will lead to a rise in crime. Advocates have responded to these criticisms by noting various research showing the lack of correlation between more policing and reduced crime.

Background

The concept of policing in the United States stems from the slave patrols organized during the era of American slavery. Slave patrols, first instituted in the Carolina colonies during the 1700s, were precursors to modern law enforcement organizations. These authoritative units were in charge of keeping watch over enslaved African Americans and ensuring that any signs of rebellion were squashed. They were also in charge of tracking down runaway slaves. Slave patrols were abolished in the years following the American Civil War, but their discriminatory policies carried over into the southern police departments that had grown out of local town-watch groups in the early 1800s. Police departments continued to disproportionately use excessive force against Black communities for many decades after the Civil War, and regularly committed acts of police brutality. In the late nineteenth and early twentieth centuries, a number of Southern states instituted Jim Crow laws, which enforced racial segregation and disenfranchised the Black population. Police departments were charged with enforcing these laws and often used violence to try and terrorize the Black populace into submission.

The belief in the need for institutional reform as it relates to racial discrimination in policing dates back to the early 1900s. Scholars such as W.E.B. DuBois believed that the fair treatment of African Americans was reliant on the elimination or reform of institutions designed to suppress minorities. He coined the term “abolition-democracy” in reference to these beliefs. DuBois, a sociologist, a historian, and an activist, wrote extensively on the subject of systemic police violence against minorities, particularly within Black American communities. Other African American activists such as Ida B. Wells also spoke out about police violence against Black communities. Wells’ investigative journalism inspired her to call for extensive police reform at the National Negro Conference in 1909 as well as an institution of federal policies to protect Black lives. As the years passed, activists such as Angela Davis believed that police reform would not suffice and a complete abolition of the modern policing system was necessary. Phrases such as “defund the police” and “abolish the police” began cropping up in the late twentieth century, but such notions were deemed too radical for serious consideration. In the wake of several instances of excessive police brutality in the United States and the deaths of multiple innocent Black individuals at the hands of police, ideas surrounding police reform and abolition resurfaced.

Overview

The slogan “defund the police” came to prominence in the summer of 2020 following the death of George Floyd, a Black man arrested in Minnesota for allegedly using a counterfeit bill to pay for cigarettes. Video footage of Floyd’s arrest revealed that the police officers involved ignored Floyd’s pleas of not being able to breathe while one officer placed his knee against Floyd’s neck and back as he lay handcuffed on the ground. Floyd died during the incident, and his death inspired a series of protests across the country demanding justice. Several other police killings of Black individuals were also highlighted as the slogan took hold.

For a majority of activists using the slogan, the phrase indicated support for reduced police budgets and the reallocation of funds to community support services. Advocates believed that government budgets should focus public safety spending on community health, education, employment, housing, and other supportive programs instead of apportioning large sums of money to police departments. The slogan is also used to represent the views of those who believe that contemporary police services should be abolished altogether. Although some activists continue to advocate for reform, others believe that the continued failure of reform efforts signals a need for a more drastic approach. The movement also draws attention to the continual increase in the cost of policing in the United States despite the reduction in crime across the country. Most city budgets assign a significantly greater amount of funds to police departments than other services and departments, and this funding usually increases each year.

Activist groups such as Black Lives Matter (BLM) demanded accountability from city budget planners as well as reforms to police arrest protocol in an effort to reduce the use of excessive force. A number of American lawmakers answered calls to defund the police by promising to scale back police spending in city budgets. Policymakers from a number of major cities, including Los Angeles, Philadelphia, Baltimore, Washington DC, and San Francisco, expressed their support for police budget cuts. Critics of the movement argued that if the country defunded its police, violence and crime would escalate. Advocates responded by citing research showing a drop in crime when police reduced their targeting of low-level offenses. Other research argued that aggressive policing tactics lead to social disruption that instigates crime. Pro-defunding activists also pointed to the fact that when New York ended its “stop and frisk” policy during the 2010s, crime did not rise. Despite these arguments, critics continued to call such actions irresponsible and a danger to society.

In the months and years immediately following the George Floyd protests, the concept of defunding the police continued to prove contentious. Republican attacks on the slogan played upon fears of rising crime, which resulted in many Democratic politicians distancing themselves from the slogan in order to avoid its negative association among many voters. Through the end of 2020 and into 2021, some major cities, including San Francisco, Minneapolis, and New York, either failed to enact or reversed large budget cuts to their police departments; in some cases, cities actually increased budgets amid community pressure over rising crime rates and other factors. While some of the Democratic Party's most liberal politicians remained committed to the concept, others shifted back to supporting more incremental types of police reform. For example, a number of Democratic politicians in Minnesota, including Keith Ellison, the state's attorney general, felt they had made a mistake in endorsing the slogan, due to its negative associations.

In elections around the country during the early 2020s, including the 2022 US midterms, politicians who supported defunding police departments saw mixed results. For example, voters in Seattle backed moderately liberal or centrist candidates for many positions in the city government in the 2022 elections, a sharp reversal of their support in 2020 for more liberal candidates, many of whom had backed defunding the police. Despite the continued controversy over the concept of defunding the police, many activists continued to stress the need for a comprehensive overhaul of police departments around the US.

By 2024, few, if any, city legislatures in the US were still considering any major legislation aimed at defunding police departments, a trend reflected in data collected at that time. For example, a survey published in 2024 in the academic journal Social Problems found that, despite widespread publicity for the Defund the Police movement during and after the George Floyd protests, no major cities in the US enacted significant police defunding during that time. In fact, the authors of the survey pointed out, some cities, primarily those led by Republicans, actually increased police funding in the aftermath of the protests.

Bibliography

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