Defund the police

In the United States, "defund the police" is a slogan that supports removing funds from police departments and reallocating them to non-policing forms of public safety and community support, such as social services, youth services, housing, education, healthcare and other community resources. Activists who use the phrase may do so with varying intentions; some seek modest reductions, while others argue for full divestment as a step toward the abolition of contemporary police services. Activists who support the defunding of police departments often argue that investing in community programs could provide a better crime deterrent for communities; funds would go toward addressing social issues, like poverty, homelessness, and mental disorders.^[1][2] Police abolitionists call for replacing existing police forces with other systems of public safety, like housing, employment, community health, education, and other programs.^[3][4][5]

The "defund the police" slogan became common during the George Floyd protests starting in May 2020.^[6] According to Jenna Wortham and Matthew Yglesias, the slogan was popularized by the Black Visions Collective shortly after the murder of George Floyd.^[7][8]

Black Lives Matter (BLM), the Movement for Black Lives, and other activists have used the phrase to call for police budget reductions and to delegate certain police responsibilities to other organizations.^{[9][10][11][12][13][14][15][16]} In Black Reconstruction in America, first published in 1935, W. E. B. Du Bois wrote about "abolition-democracy", which advocated for the removal of institutions that were rooted in racist and repressive practices, including prisons, convict leasing, and white police forces. In the 1960s, activists such as Angela Davis advocated for the defunding or abolition of police departments.^[17] The 2017 book The End of Policing by Alex S. Vitale has been called "a manual of sorts for the defund movement".^[18]

Many sociologists, criminologists, and journalists have criticized aspects of the police defunding movement.^{[19][20][21][22]} In the United States, despite support for defunding being largely associated with left-wing, Democratic Party policies,^[23][24][25] politicians from both the Democratic and Republican parties have spoken against defunding, although Republicans have sought to link Democrats to the movement in congressional races.^[26] Among the general public in the United States, the concept of defunding the police is unpopular.^[27][28][26] According to a 2024 study, there is no evidence of police defunding in major US cities in the aftermath of the 2020 BLM protests while cities with large Republican vote shares tended to increase police budgets in the aftermath of the protests.^[29]

According to the New York Times, the slogan and movement failed to result in any meaningful policy change. This was attributed to the slogan having no clear definition of its goals. It also was concluded that the slogan "defund-the-police" was wildly unpopular and was used to successfully portray activists as soft-on-crime. A May 2021 poll found that just 18% of the population supported the slogan with 58% opposing.^[30]