what "defund the police" really means

so if you've been looking at posts and articles to do with the black lives matter movement, (if you haven't please do and stay informed) then you may have seen/heard the phrase "defund the police" used, and you or people you know may be wondering what it means and how it works.

also in this thread i will be mainly talking about the uk, just because that's where i'm from and it is much harder to research into other countries, but you can always do your own research on where you live if you are interested.

annually, about £28. billion is spent on the police in the united kingdom alone (figures for other countries are available online). this huge sum of money could be spent on other services, which are more important, such as education and healthcare.

for example, the nhs (national health service) in the uk means that everyone is entitled to free healthcare. however, the nhs is hugely underfunded by the government, which means that people can't always get the healthcare that they need. however, if less money was spent on-

-the police and more money was spent on the nhs, then people would be able to get vital healthcare services. (i'm oversimplifying here a bit).

"but who will keep us safe if the police has less money?"

in reality, despite what we are all told, the police doesn't really keep us safe. also, de-funding the police doesn't mean getting rid of the police entirely. it actually means putting more money into social policies-

-that prevent people from coming to harm in the first place. coming from a priveliged, white perspective, the police may seem like a great idea, which keeps everyone safe and enforces the law, but in reality, the police are murdering innocent black people, who deserved better.

@guardian wrote an article on this which i took inspiration and statistics from, but the wording is all my own. the article goes into a lot more detail, but this is a simplified version for people who want to learn about issues like this in an easier way. https://amp-theguardian-com.cdn.ampproject.org/v/s/amp.theguardian.com/commentisfree/2020/jul/02/britain-defund-the-police-black-lives-matter?amp_js_v=a3&amp_gsa=1&usqp=mq331AQFKAGwASA%3D#aoh=15938601165569&amp_ct=1593860187722&referrer=https%3A%2F%2Fwww.google.com&amp_tf=From%20%251%24s&ampshare=https%3A%2F%2Fwww.theguardian.com%2Fcommentisfree%2F2020%2Fjul%2F02%2Fbritain-defund-the-police-black-lives-matter