Many citizens have experienced harm from the #police. Defunding the police is a must, and will result in funding alternative areas that provide a higher ROI.

Zerkel published an article on the American Friends Service Committee that laid out several reasons why we should defund the police as soon as possible, and divestment of the police budget is one of them. He quoted, “As part of its agenda, the Campaign for Black Lives advocates for the "reallocation of federal, state and municipal government funding from police and detention to long-term schooling, restorative justice, and job policies."

Zerkel added, “In Chicago, the #NoCopAcademy initiative galvanized thousands of community activists and gained help from more than 100 community groups to encourage the city to transfer money towards a proposed $95 million police academy to services that favor children and neighborhoods. Faced with revenue shortfalls and critical welfare concerns, at least 13 jurisdictions have slashed their police budgets.”

The reporter also argued that people’s tax dollars should be spent on more compassionate approaches to the force. According to him, “This involves funding health care providers to tend to mental health emergencies — instead of the police. It also means turning our energies to transformative reform approaches that help offenders and collaborate closely with people that have inflicted violence by group-based accountability structures. Within these models, community stakeholders work collectively to keep each other secure.”

Nally testified in his report a few years ago in The Progressive about the unjust budget allocations to state departments. He stated, “The LAPD has one of the country’s highest police budgets — more than 50 percent of the city's "unrestricted" general fund, which is not meant for particular uses, goes to security. It has an annual budget of $1.8 billion and invests $3.1 billion, out of a total of $10.5 billion in the region. By comparison, Los Angeles Mayor Eric Garcetti's budget plan for 2021 invests just $81 million on housing, a pitiful sum in a supposedly affluent community with elevated and growing rates of homelessness.” So, it is clear in this state that the police force was not doing what they are told to perform, even though they have a sufficient budget.

So, instead of investing vast amounts of the country’s money to the police force, we should use them in more effective and efficient alternatives.