PORTLAND, Ore. (KOIN) — You see the signs during protests, hear the chants: Defund the police. It’s a newer idea that has emerged in recent years following police misuse of force.
The discussion centers around questioning if cities can avoid hostile situations with officers and civilians by putting that money to a different use.
Dr. Brian Renauer, a criminology and criminal justice professor at Portland State University, told KOIN 6 News that what’s at the root of the idea of “defunding police” makes us ask ourselves what we want our police force to look like — including the size, units, strategies and training.
“And that requires money,” Dr. Renauer said. “So it’s, it’s asking the question of how much money do we need to create the police force that we want to see. And I think this defunding of policing is using that money issue to leverage the types of changes that communities and constituents want to see in their local environment.”
Ultimately, he said, it boils down to a policy question. He stressed that ideally in criminal justice, city officials use evidence and data to help drive their policy decision making.
In the past decisions have been made on political or ideological purposes, he said. For instance, the “War on Drugs” wasn’t based on data, which led to serious consequences like mass incarceration, disparities throughout the criminal justice system and states on the brink of bankruptcy.
“I think debating criminal justice policy is important in that we have had a history of poor policy decisions, creating disparate impacts on communities,” Dr. Renauer said. “And that’s part of the fuel behind what’s going on right now and having these discussions it’s about determining what is the best way to address public safety.”
From a criminology standpoint, Dr. Renauer said it makes sense how the city is currently reviewing PPB by focusing on individual units and how they impact the community.
“The criminal justice system needs to lead with recognizing the pain that communities of color are feeling and have suffered and not to avoid that,” he said. “I think it’s critical that there’s an ownership of what’s going on, we have to address the past while at the same time looking to the future.
“If we, if we just sweep the past under the rug, then real healing might never occur.”
Wheeler’s plan: ‘Repurpose, reinvest and reform’
Defund the police? Portland City Council to discuss
The Mayor said he’s working with the city council to re-imagine what public safety looks like in Portland, and they’re re-evaluating how they can utilize resources and funding toward other models of safety and prevention. Community members suggest this money saved could be used for other social services, for instance, responding calls to help homeless, housing and education in Portland.
Wednesday, the Portland City Council may vote on defunding and dissolving 2 units: the Gun Violence Reduction Team and its portion of the Transit Police.
Council members argue these units disproportionately and negatively impact the Black community. For the 2020-21 fiscal year, the City of Portland alloted $6 million for the GVRT and $4.3 million for the Transit Police.
When asked about the proposal to dissolve PPB’s portion of the Transit Police, TriMet officials said PPB is just one of a dozen agencies they hire for policing their trains and they reimburse PPB for their work and equipment.
Mayor Ted Wheeler said at a Tuesday press conference it’s not the best use of 32 officers. The current contract with TriMet ends at the end of this year. Wheeler said the city will not renew it.
TriMet spokesperson Roberta Alstadt said their agency won’t speculate before a final vote by the City Council.
Wheeler also announced they’re reviewing the GVRT and finding ways to trim it down and rethink how PPB can prevent gun violence, instead of making outright cuts to PPB budgets. Wheeler also talked about moving officers to different responsibilities and initiatives.
The mayor said the city is redirecting $12 million to reinvest in communities of Black, indigenous and people of color. He explained the financial savings will come from a series of sources, including PPB, savings, putting projects on hold, other city bureaus, current vacancies and cannabis.
Following pressure for criminal justice reform from city leaders and advocates, Portland Mayor Ted Wheeler is removing school resource officers from campuses.
According to the current budget, PPB allotted to spend rougly $4 million on the SRO program. It’s not clear how they’ll be redirecting these funds or officers.
However, Mayor Wheeler already announced he’ll be diverting $1 million from PPB to a “a community-driven process to help black children.”
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When protesters cry ‘defund the police,’ what does it mean?
MICHAEL BALSAMO, Associated Press
WASHINGTON (AP) — Protesters are pushing to “defund the police” over the death of George Floyd and other black Americans killed by law enforcement. Their chant has become rallying cry — and a stick for President Donald Trump to use on Democrats as he portrays them as soft on crime.
But what does “defund the police” mean? It’s not necessarily about gutting police department budgets.
WHAT IS THE ‘DEFUND THE POLICE’ MOVEMENT?
Supporters say it isn’t about eliminating police departments or stripping agencies of all of their money. They say it is time for the country to address systemic problems in policing in America and spend more on what communities across the U.S. need, like housing and education.
State and local governments spent $115 billion on policing in 2017, according todata compiled by the Urban Institute.
“Why can’t we look at how it is that we reorganize our priorities, so people don’t have to be in the streets during a national pandemic?” Black Lives Matter co-founder Alicia Garza asked during an interview on NBC’s Meet the Press.
Activists acknowledge this is a gradual process.
The group MPD150, which says it is “working towards a police-free Minneapolis,” argues that such action would be more about “strategically reallocating resources, funding, and responsibility away from police and toward community-based models of safety, support, and prevention.”
“The people who respond to crises in our community should be the people who are best-equipped to deal with those crises,” the group wrote on its website.
WHAT ARE LAWMAKERS SAYING?
Sen. Cory Booker said he understands the sentiment behind the slogan, but it’s not a slogan he will use.
The New Jersey Democrat told NBC’s “Meet the Press” that he shares a feeling with many protesters that Americans are “over-policed” and that “we are investing in police, which is not solving problems, but making them worse when we should be, in a more compassionate country, in a more loving country.”
Rep. Karen Bass, D-Calif., chairwoman of the Congressional Black Caucus, said part of the movement is really about how money is spent.
“Now, I don’t believe that you should disband police departments,” she said in an interview with CNN. “But I do think that, in cities, in states, we need to look at how we are spending the resources and invest more in our communities.
“Maybe this is an opportunity to re-envision public safety,” she said.
President Donald Trump and his campaign view the emergence of the “Defund the Police” slogan as a spark of opportunity during what has been a trying political moment. Trump’s response to the protests has sparked widespread condemnation. But now his supporters say the new mantra may make voters, who may be otherwise sympathetic to the protesters, recoil from a “radical” idea.
Trump seized on the slogan last week as he spoke at an event in Maine.
“They’re saying defund the police,” he said. “Defund. Think of it. When I saw it, I said, ‘What are you talking about?’ ‘We don’t want to have any police,’ they say. You don’t want police?”
Trump’s 2016 campaign was built on a promise of ensuring law and order — often in contrast to protests against his rhetoric that followed him across the country. As he seeks reelection, Trump is preparing to deploy the same argument again — and seems to believe the “defund the police” call has made the campaign applause line all the more real for his supporters.
IS THERE ANY PUSH TO ACTUALLY DEFUND POLICE DEPARTMENTS?
Yes, or at least to reduce their budgets in some major cities.
In New York City, Mayor Bill de Blasio said Sunday that the city would move funding from the NYPD to youth initiatives and social services, while keeping the city safe, but he didn’t give details.
In Los Angeles, Mayor Eric Garcetti vowed to cut as much as $150 million that was part of a planned increase in the police department’s budget.
A Minneapolis city councilmember said in atweet on Thursday that the city would “dramatically rethink how we approach public safety and emergency response.”
“We are going to dismantle the Minneapolis Police Department,” Jeremiah Ellison wrote. “And when we’re done, we’re not simply gonna glue it back together.” He did not explain what would replace the police department.
A majority of the members of the Minneapolis City Council said Sunday they support disbanding the city’s police department. Nine of the council’s 12 members appeared with activists at a rally in a city park Sunday afternoon and vowed to end policing as the city currently knows it.
“It is clear that our system of policing is not keeping our communities safe,” Lisa Bender, the council president, said. “Our efforts at incremental reform have failed, period.”
Disbanding an entire department has happened before. In 2012, with crime rampant in Camden, New Jersey, the city disbanded its police department and replaced it with a new force that covered Camden County. Compton, California, took the same step in 2000, shifting its policing to Los Angeles County.
HOW HAVE POLICE OFFICIALS AND UNIONS RESPONDED?
Generally, police and union officials have long resisted cuts to police budgets, arguing that it would make cities less safe.
The Los Angeles Police Protective League, the union for the city’s rank-and-file officers, said budget cuts would be the “quickest way to make our neighborhoods more dangerous.”
“Cutting the LAPD budget means longer responses to 911 emergency calls, officers calling for back-up won’t get it, and rape, murder and assault investigations won’t occur or will take forever to initiate, let alone complete,” the union’s board said in a statement last week.
“At this time, with violent crime increasing, a global pandemic and nearly a week’s worth of violence, arson, and looting, ‘defunding’ the LAPD is the most irresponsible thing anyone can propose.”
Associated Press writers Zeke Miller in Washington and Michael R. Sisak in New York contributed to this report.