Over the course of the semester, I have been working on a policy brief for PLCY220 at UNC that details police reform and community reinvestment. After the rise of protests of this past summer, I wanted to look specifically at policy solutions and police reform-

As police reform has been on the radar of major news outlets for nearly a year now, many people have different definitions of what reform and community investment looks like. Here is what I have gathered:

Law enforcement are expected to address situations that they are not trained for, nor equipped to handle. This stems from the fact that the criminal justice system serves as a de facto response to a ton of social issues

Activists and proponents of the campaign to “defund the police” want the budget of police to be lessened and redistributed back into communities- the rationale behind this is that reduction in police presence = reduction in police brutality / community harm

Let’s make this clear, defunding the police does NOT mean completely doing away with law enforcement immediately. It DOES mean shrinking the scope of police responsibility and shifting funding to entires that are better equipped to meet community needs.

A common myth: defunding the police means no one will protect us! FACT: police spend a tiny portion of their time serving (approx 4%) on violent crime. This means a large portion of police futures are not spent on protecting citizens from violent crimes...

Another myth: race plays no role in policing. FACT: black and Hispanic people are more frequently stopped and once stopped, police are more likely to use force against, shoot, and kill minority citizens.

But is defunding doable? Cutting police budgets would mean cutting salaries of police- 97% of police budgets are spent on salaries, pensions, and benefits. Federal police funding has grown at a faster rate, but it is hard to look closely at state and local budgets

Because police budgets vary due to factors like size of population, budgeting and refinancing (in terms of tangible solutions) must largely be the responsibility of local and state governments...

Here’s what we can do/consider:
1. Redirect funds back into communities through reinvestment, up front investment, or through an invest-divest model.
2. Eliminate police as the only 1st line of responders
3. Take police out of schools to support limiter community interaction.

This thread was for class credit, but if you made it this far, thanks for reading :)