June 10, 2020
What would it mean to ‘defund the police’? These cities offer ideas
Programs in Dallas, Milwaukee and Salinas, California, have drawn the attention of activists seeking to end law enforcement’s systemic abuse of black Americans.
Programs in Dallas, Milwaukee and Salinas, California, have drawn the attention of activists seeking to end law enforcement’s systemic abuse of black Americans.
Police unions will stand in opposition to many of the reforms that are being proposed in this moment. But what about the officials who run those departments? We wanted to know if there’s appetite for change at the top.
“This is not a zero sum game, pulling the dollar from one place, putting it in the other…It’s about stopping this overreliance on police, prisons and jails, and finding solutions, evidence-based solutions, that work.”
Senator Cory Booker credited his work with John Jay’s National Network for Safe Communities during his Newark mayoralty for helping the city use evidence-based solutions, like community interventions, to build safer communities.
“When people are in crisis, why should the person who shows up be a person with a gun?” asks criminologist David Kennedy, director of the National Network for Safe Communities program at John Jay College of Criminal Justice.
“Police officers in the United States in reality need to be conscious of and are trained to be conscious of the fact that literally every single person they come in contact with may be carrying a concealed firearm,” David Kennedy, a criminologist at John Jay College, explained.
“Políticament és arriscat el que està passant a Minneapolis”, diu David Kennedy, professor al John Jay College de Nova York i expert en reformes policials. “Però envia un missatge important als líders sindicals i als policies de tot el país: si us continueu negant a canviar res, haureu de plegar”.
NNSC directed the DOJ’s National Initiative for Building Community Trust and Justice in six cities nationwide; including Minneapolis. Despite promising project results, the hard work we did then and are doing in Minneapolis was not sufficient to prevent George Floyd from being killed. The Urban Institute’s Jesse Jannetta reckons with that, and what departments need
The City of Minneapolis works with John Jay’s National Network of Safe Communities to implement the Group Violence and Domestic Violence intervention systems.
“When communities don’t trust the police and are afraid of the police, then they will not and cannot work with police and within the law around issues in their own community,” David Kennedy, a criminologist at John Jay College