Dismantling the Police?

[Emergent, RN]

How does this work? Doesn't it open the door to anarchy? Won't the lawless segment of society take full advantage?

Here in my state, just with this virus scare, drivers thought they wouldn't get pulled over, and suddenly people started going over 100mph on the highways. Will the county sheriff dept step in?

It really does appear that American society is falling apart. The legacy of slavery, the karma for materialism, greed and over-consumption, a culture of violence, the breakdown of families and moral values, all make our nation vulnerable for a big fall. Covid, and our worship of medicine as our salvation is only the catalyst. We have done this to ourselves.

[Hoosier_RN, MSN]

I worry because if there is no one to uphold the law, some people will run wild, without any fear of repurcussion. There will be no one for the victim to call.

In the end, the wealthy will have private security; the middle class and poor will have no protections, so it's bull hockey!

You can bet your sweet bottom that the tax money will be realocated to something....one of the usual pork barrel projects of some politician

[emtb2rn, BSN, RN, EMT-B]

Defunding is not the same as abolishing. While some are calling for the total abolishment of police departments, I think that is an incredibly bad idea for reasons mentioned in the above post.

Defunding on the other hand redistributes funding from policing to areas such as community outreach and social services. I think this idea has merit and should be explored department by department.

Camden nj took an approach, that while abolishing it’s department, did not leave the city without law enforcement. This approach has apparently had significant success in reducing major crime.

“The transformation began after the 2012 homicide spike. The department wanted to put more officers on patrol but couldn’t afford to hire more, partly because of generous union contracts. So in 2013, the mayor and city council dissolved the local PD and signed an agreement for the county to provide shared services. The new county force is double the size of the old one, and officers almost exclusively patrol the city. (They were initially nonunion but have since unionized.) Increasing the head count was a trust-building tactic, says Thomson, who served as chief throughout the transition: Daily, noncrisis interactions between residents and cops went up. Police also got de-escalation training and body cameras, and more cameras and devices to detect gunfire were installed around the city.”

https://www.bloomberg.com/news/articles/2020-06-04/how-camden-new-jersey-reformed-its-police-department

[Emergent, RN]

@emtb2rn thanks for the excellent explanation.

[herring_RN, ASN, BSN]

Former Chief Of Reformed Camden, N.J., Force: Police Need ‘Consent Of The People’

Activists across the country are calling for radical reforms to policing in the U.S., including abolishing the police entirely.

Camden, N.J., took its own big step in 2013. The city was in a public safety crisis, with murder rates 18 times the national average and scores of excessive-force complaints, when the mayor and City Council dissolved the existing police department and created a countywide force in its place.

A majority of the police were rehired, but each had to complete a 50-page application, retake psychological testing and go through an interview process, former police Chief Scott Thomson said....

... The department instituted other changes, including putting more officers on the street on a regular basis, getting to know the community and changing the way an officer's performance was measured — not by the number of arrests or tickets issued, but other outcomes.

"When I drove down city streets, I wanted to see little kids riding a bicycle in front of their homes, and I wanted to see people sitting on their front steps," Thomson told Mary Louise Kelly on NPR's All Things Considered.

His goal was the change the identity of Camden police officers from that of "warrior" to "guardian."

Homicides have gone down from 67 in 2012 to 25 in 2019. Excessive-force complaints went from 65 in 2012 to three last year, Thomson said....

https://www.kpbs.org/news/2020/jun/08/former-chief-of-reformed-camden-nj-force-police/

[toomuchbaloney]

A significant percentage of police funding could easily be more appropriately allocated to benefit the communities and reduce crime.

[NRSKarenRN, BSN, RN]

Philadelphia Inquirer

Camden disbanded its police department and built a new one. Can others learn from it?

https://www.inquirer.com/news/camden-police-defund-minneapolis-george-floyd-protest-20200609.html

[Hoosier_RN, MSN]

As long as there is someone to help to maintain law and order, I'm all for it. Some make it sound like they want no replacement in their setting