"Defund the Police" Failed, but We Can Still Find Solutions

I am a resident of the Twin Cities—Saint Paul to be specific. 

I principally hold the Minneapolis Police Department responsible not only for George Floyd’s murder, but also, through their actions afterward, for allowing the Twin Cities to descend into such a state that anarchists, professional criminals, and the far left/right were able to burn Minneapolis and Saint Paul with impunity.

The MPD has a well-earned reputation for corruption, brutality, and racism even by the standards of American law enforcement already endemic with all three problems. In addition, the department’s clearance rate is quite poor with violent crime, especially rape and sexual assault (even by the abysmal standards of the American criminal justice system).

The MPD screwed up so badly in the aftermath of George Floyd’s murder (on top of killing yet another black man for racist reasons) that additional police departments in the Twin Cities Metro Area and the National Guard had to be deployed just to get the situation in Minneapolis under control.

Truth be told, I am not sure that the MPD can be reformed as it currently exists. The rot extends fairly deep (though to be fair, I have the same attitude toward the way the Minneapolis city government is set up). As President Obama would say, “wholesale rehabilitation” is the bare minimum required.

So in reality, I do support “purging” the MPD, for the lack of a better term: do to the MPD what Northern Ireland did to the Royal Ulster Constabulary as part of the Good Friday Agreement.

All of this is to say that when I criticize how “Defund the Police” was both thought of and executed by the Minneapolis City Council, I am not suggesting that it is out of love for the MPD.

Instead, the criticism is out of concern for those who have been most gravely affected by the Minneapolis City Council’s decisions.

How “Defund the Police” Went Wrong

Shortly after George Floyd’s murder, a veto-proof majority on the Minneapolis City Council pledged to disband the MPD. At the time, the Minneapolis City Council was applauded for this step while Minneapolis Mayor Jacob Frey (who is far from blameless himself in this whole mess) was booed and heckled for saying he opposed this measure.

Just one minor problem with what the city council did.

The members of the council did not actually agree on what they meant when they said they favored dismantling the MPD. There was not even a first-draft plan.

Let me repeat. When the members of the veto-proof majority on the Minneapolis City Council said they favored dismantling an agency with more than a thousand dedicated staff, including well over seven hundred sworn officers, and a budget of well over $100 million, they did not agree on what it meant in practice.

Do you see the problem yet?

The Tragic but Predictable Consequences

As a result, the MPD is taking unplanned and unsustainable attrition in its ranks at the worst possible time. Violent crime is up across Minneapolis. Chief Medaria Arradondo, the head of the MPD (who seems more popular than any of the citywide leaders in Minneapolis right now), is doing the best he can to keep the people of Minneapolis safe, reign in a department with a toxic and racist culture, and make some badly needed reforms at the same time.

The reckless and poorly thought out actions by the Minneapolis City Council have caused a serious setback to the urgent issue of stopping police from needlessly killing black people.

A Better Approach in Saint Paul

Let me start this section off by saying that the Saint Paul Police Department is far from perfect, as recent events show. Like many police departments across America, the SPPD has serious and systemic problems with racial profiling and excessive force.

With that being said, the Saint Paul city government is doing a much better job at figuring out how to rethink law enforcement than are their Minneapolis counterparts.

For starters, the Saint Paul city government has put in much more thought in how it sees the role of law enforcement going forward. Mayor Carter (my mayor—proud to say I voted for him) has not only done an excellent job of outreach to the people of Saint Paul during some its darkest days, but he can also talk—as a black man—about experiencing racism from the police in a way few people in power can.

Just look at how people in Saint Paul and Minneapolis responded to the curfew orders issued in the Twin Cities during the unrest after a particularly brutal night. In Saint Paul, the curfew was widely obeyed; in Minneapolis, it was widely disobeyed. Clearly, between Minneapolis Mayor Jacob Frey and Saint Paul Mayor Melvin Carter, Mayor Carter’s authority carried more weight.

Meanwhile, the Saint Paul City Council has taken a more serious approach to actually reimagining the role of the Saint Paul Police Department. During a conversation with my city council member, she brought up that they are figuring out how to make the SPPD work for the people of Saint Paul. True, two of city council members are in favor of defunding and disbanding the SPPD, but that is only two out of seven.

If you want to see how to tackle this problem seriously, then look to the Saint Paul city government.

What “Defund the Police” Means in Practice

The Los Angeles city government, partially out of public pressure in the aftermath of George Floyd’s murder and partially because of a fiscal emergency caused by collapsing tax revenue/climbing expenses, cut funding for the Los Angeles Police Department.

As a result, many critical departments in the LAPD got cut as well. Most significantly, a unit dedicated solely to investigating sexual assault is likely to be disbanded, along with a unit dedicated to homelessness outreach and animal abuse.

It is inexcusable that the LA city government did not think this far ahead and that one of the first units to get the axe was a group dedicated to investigating sexual assault—says a lot about the top brass of the LAPD.

If you are not careful, “Defund the Police” means fewer detectives to solve major crimes, slower response times, and a less safe population.

When you cut police department budgets, you have to be careful that you don’t accidentally axe units that are handling crimes that are under-investigated as it is or decrease investigative capacity for major crimes like homicide. Sex-crime units are typically understaffed, undertrained, and underfunded considering the volume of cases (the current weaknesses of sex-crime units being far from the only problem with how sexual assault is dealt with in the criminal justice system).

If you are looking to slash a police department’s budget, make sure you are being careful. Look at each unit and what it does, and make decisions from there. Tell the top brass what you want cut and what you don’t want cut.

The Problem with “Defund the Police”

I want the police to treat people of color the same way they treat me as a white man. It is said much better in this Twitter thread than I ever could.

It is one thing to argue that tasks assigned to the police today are better served by other segments of society or another set of professionals. It is quite another to argue that cutting funding will improve outcomes.

For me, defunding the police as a solution to police misconduct has two fundamental flaws.

First, Republicans use the same logic when it comes to public schools and other public sectors that have been underperforming for decades. I bet that not one person who wants to defund the police wants to defund public education or cut funding to public hospitals because of huge gaps in educational and health outcomes between white people and people of color, black people especially, even when taking funding into account.

For anyone in the comments in favor of defunding the police, do you also want to defund public schools because of how badly they are failing so many of America’s children, or do you want to fix the reasons they are failing so many kids?

Second and more importantly, the problem of police misconduct is not primarily about funding. It is about structural problems in how police contracts are negotiated (thanks to police unions), laws that make it next to impossible to hold police officers accountable even when they behave in objectively egregious ways, toxic cultures inside policing, and white people (all across the political spectrum) who regard people of color as chronic problems that need to be managed. Put it another way, defunding the police misses the fundamental truth about police misconduct.

I don’t want to defund the police; I want to fix the problems inside policing.

A Push toward a Better Future

I will be referring mainly to the MPD in this section. However, what I propose here can be applied to other police departments across the country.

Considering just how deep the rot resides inside the MPD itself, I would propose a Northern Ireland–like solution. This means all officers are temporarily fired, and their records are evaluated. If they are found to be in good standing, rehire them. Although what occurred in Northern Ireland at the end of the Troubles is far more complex with the Royal Ulster Constabulary transitioning into the Northern Police Force of Northern Ireland, these are the basics of what occurred.

As a legal rule, qualified immunity needs to be abolished. It plays a key role in how police are able to get away with the worst crimes on a regular basis. Chief Arradondo needs to be able to discipline his staff when they step out of line for any reason. His decision to exit negotiations with the Minneapolis Police Federation was an excellent move.

Reform-minded leaders in law enforcement need all the support they can get. They need consistent and reliable support from political leaders and the community. More importantly, they need to be around for a long time to make the badly needed changes.

Despite the current condition of the MPD, Chief Arradondo has successfully fought to get some reforms in and has one of the strongest characters I have ever encountered. It is vital that he stays around to transform the MPD.

The problems with the MPD must get solved if Minneapolis is to move forward in any significant way.