California has 482 cities and 58 counties that spent more than $20 billion for city #police and county sheriff’s department funding in 2017-2018. California also spends around $50 billion yearly on local law enforcement, the criminal legal system, and other law enforcement activities. 

The incident of George Floyd’s death at the hands of police sparked rallies, riots, and protests that have led to the demands of “defunding the police” from activists. In 2022, some parts of California have begun cutting their local police budgets.

Philip McHarris, a doctoral candidate in sociology at Yale University, described the domino effect of defunding the police as dismantling the protection built around the communities and stepping toward community-led public safety. 

However, many believe funding the police is critical to the well-being of threatened communities. Defunding the police reduces funding for vitally important training and ongoing professional development that needs to occur to address bad policing tactics.

Good policing requires continued support, training, and instruction on de-escalation tactics for the officers. Defunding the police will harm the police force’s ability to recruit and retain good officers. Due to continued exposure to high-risk, high-stress, high volatile situations daily, the profession is considered hazardous. Therefore, defunding the police would remove crucial employee assistance programs for the officers. 

The question in debate is, should California reallocate funding for their state police forces?