No, Republicans did not defund the police. When Chris Wallace, host of Fox News Sunday, asked Congressman Jim Banks (R-IN) if it is actually the Republicans who are defunding the police I was floored (Pengelly, 2021). This line of questioning comes from the fact that the Republicans voted against the American Rescue Plan. The plan included $350 billion that will go to local governments that could then be used fund police related activities (Pengelly, 2021). Of course, this line of questioning caught Congressman Banks off guard, and he proceeded to fumble his way through a few vaguely related talking points. I don’t want to go into how Chris Wallace was essentially doing the bidding of the Democrat party during this interview, but I will go into how completely unfounded these questions were.
President Joe Biden in a recent town hall was asked about Republicans pushing the narrative that Democrats, including President Biden, want to defund the police. He responded quickly with “They’re lying” (Gangitano, 2021). He then discussed the idea of reforming the police. Specifically, changing police conduct, determining what happens if a police officer or department violates rules, and access for the Justice Department to be able to investigate wrongdoing (Gangitano, 2021). President Biden then went on to highlight his commitment to investing in police to combat crime (Gangitano, 2021). Let’s ignore the fact that just last year while on the campaign trial President Biden said “Yes, absolutely” when asked if he agrees that police funding can be redirected (Miller, 2021). Of course, he was just looking for votes then and didn’t really mean what he was saying. He really does support police departments. Let’s ignore his support for local, state, and federal politicians who are in favor of defunding the police. He doesn’t agree with them on defunding the police, just every other issue. I mean, that $350 billion is a lot of money that local governments may spend on police departments. I will emphasize the word may in that sentence. There is no way to know how much of that money will eventually go to police departments. Considering a big percentage of that money went to big cities that are controlled by Democrats I assume the amount of money going into policing is low.
Outside of this one-time cash infusion that Democrats recklessly poured into every level of government what have Democrats, and specifically President Biden, done to support local police departments? Nothing would be an understatement. Enthusiastically destroying entire police departments would be a better characterization. They do this through the process of consent decrees. Consent decrees are employed through the Department of Justice (DOJ) (Criminal Justice Programs, 2017). The DOJ will investigate police departments to determine if there is any evidence of systematic abuse (Criminal Justice Programs, 2017). If the DOJ finds there is evidence of abuse they will draft a consent decree which will outline what reforms the police department must comply with to correct the abuse that the DOJ observes (Criminal Justice Programs, 2017). Once the decree is finalized, it then goes before a federal judge for approval and a federal monitor is assigned to oversee the reform process (Criminal Justice Programs, 2017). This may seem like a process that works to hold police departments accountable, but in practice it works to federalize police departments. Consent decrees work to strip police departments of their ability to effectively police their communities. Often times, after a consent decree is enacted, violent crime and murder rates increase. President Biden’s administration has reinstated pursuing consent decrees after President Trump’s administration moved away from the practice. Recently, the DOJ under President Biden opened investigations into the Louisvlle Metro Police Department and the Minneapolis Police Department. These investigations have yet to be completed, so I will focus on some of the consent decrees that were approved during President Barack Obama’s administration when President Biden was vice-president. Specifically, I will focus on Albuquerque, Cleveland, Baltimore, and St. Louis.
In 2014, the Albuquerque Police Department (APD) entered into a Court Approved Settlement Agreement with the DOJ. The DOJ had found that officers within the APD had a pattern and practice of excessive force (Kaplan, 2021). This agreement was a consent decree where the city agreed to make 300 policy changes to the department (Wilham, 2021). In addition to the policy changes, the agreement consisted of $20 million for training, staffing, and a monitor (Wilham, 2021). Since the consent decree was enacted Albuquerque has seen a 53% increase in violent crime, murders, rapes, robberies and aggravated assaults (Wilham, 2021).
In 2015, the city of Cleveland settled into a consent decree with the DOJ (Graham, 2015). The decree required Cleveland cops to reform their behavior, and demanded that they document encounters, to ensure that they’re meeting the standards laid out. (Graham, 2015). Officers were barred from using retaliatory violence, and were trained in de-escalation tactics (Graham, 2015). This decree came after an investigation found that the Cleveland Police Department used unnecessary and excessive use of deadly force; used unnecessary, excessive or retaliatory use of less lethal force; used excessive force against persons who are mentally ill or in crisis; and employed poor and dangerous tactics that placed officers in situations where avoidable force became inevitable (Graham, 2015). It appears that the DOJ is just interested in fixing a broken and abusive police department. So, it is okay that Cleveland saw 177 homicides in 2020, up 44% from last year and 136% in the past decade (WKYC, 2021).
In 2016, the city of Ferguson, Missouri (St. Louis) entered a consent decree following the death of Michael Brown in 2014. An investigation found patterns of racial bias in policing and a municipal court system that generated revenue largely from poor and minority residents (Alexander, 2016). The decree mandated that Ferguson police officers undergo bias-awareness training and that the department implement an accountability system (Alexander, 2016). Since this decree has been in effect violent crime and murders have been on the rise in Ferguson (City Data, 2021).
Finally, in 2017, Baltimore entered into a consent decree with the DOJ (Domonoske, 2017). The decree instructed police to use de-escalation tactics before resorting to violence and called for police to be instructed on implicit bias and victim-centered practices (Domonoske, 2017). The consent decree came after a report identified widespread racial bias, use of excessive force, repeated patterns of unconstitutional arrests and hostility towards women and LGBT civilians, as well as other civil rights violations (Domonoske, 2021). In 2020, the city of Baltimore saw 335 murders, which is flat since the consent decree took place (Baltimore Sun, 2021). Though, the number of homicides is up around 33% since the event that led to the consent decree took place (Baltimore Sun, 2021).
This increase in violent crime and homicide doesn’t paint the entire picture, but it is a brush stroke. It becomes apparent that there is a problem in a few select localities when you look at the violent crime and murder rates in the entire United States. In the past 10 years violent crime across the United States has seen a decrease of ~10% (Statista, 2021). Additionally, since 2010 the homicide rate has been basically flat across the United States (Macrotrends, 2021).
These consent decrees do have their positives. There are abuses that need to be fixed in police departments. Fixing those abuses should be a priority in every community, but more government is usually not the best solution. Law enforcement officials who have been through this process say it results in political fallout and deep divisions (Swanson, 2021). DOJ oversight handcuffs officers, forcing them into internal investigations that take time away from policing streets in the midst of record-breaking violent crime (Swanson, 2021). Trying to fix abuses within police departments is a noble goal, but the rising crime that follows in these cities don’t justify the little effect that these investigations and subsequent consent decrees usually have.
There is always the possibility that if these consent decrees are really that detrimental local police departments can fight this battle in court. These police departments don’t have to accept the consent decrees from the DOJ. But, with a $35.3 billion dollar budget, the amount in the DOJ’s 2021 budget request, the DOJ has unlimited resources to compel police departments into consent decrees or face unlimited litigation expenses (Government Investigations, 2021). To put that amount of money in perspective, the entire Indiana budget is $35 billion over two-years. Of course, this only happens in select police departments nationwide. The DOJ only goes after police departments with demonstrated abuses and are violating federal statutes. That doesn’t stop Congress, controlled by Democrats, from taking this practice nationwide.
In 2020, after the murder of George Floyd, Democrats in Congress released a number of proposals that they thought would help address issues around police misconduct. It did not matter if statistics did not support their mission of destroying the policing institution. At the time, Democrats were hellbent on virtue signaling to their base. The original proposal would have allowed victims of misconduct to sue police for damages, banned chokeholds, required the use of body cameras by federal law enforcement officers, restricted the use of lethal force, and facilitated independent investigations of police departments that show patterns of misconduct (Morgan, 2020). Most of this is cookie cutter language from consent decrees nationwide. I want to iterate that I don’t disagree with the entire proposal. Mandating body cameras nationwide is a good idea. Investigations are not bad in theory, but as I have explained the way the federal government conducts investigations is detrimental for local police departments. At the time, Republicans controlled the Senate, so this proposal was dead on arrival. Recently, the House of Representatives passed a bill that would prohibit racial and religious profiling by law enforcement at every level, ban chokeholds at the federal level, ban no-knock warrants in federal drug cases, eliminate qualified immunity for law enforcement, mandate data collection on police encounters and create a nationwide police misconduct registry to hold accountable problematic officers who are fired or leave an agency (McCaskill, 2021). Again, I don’t disagree with every portion of this bill. Prohibiting profiling is a good thing. Data collection on bad police officers is a good thing, but as a general principle I get a little uneasy when the idea of a registry is proposed. Of course, the federal government knows that locals will not want to implement a majority of these policies. So, the federal policies would be tied to law enforcement funding for governments at the state and local levels (McCaskill, 2021). Obviously, state and local governments don’t know how to best handle their communities. Force feeding localities federal policies by threatening to cut funding is a great idea. Luckly, the Senate is split 50/50 and the Democrats are not willing to blow up the filibuster to pass this legislation.
Just because Democrats in Congress can’t achieve their goal of federalizing local police departments, doesn’t mean local governments let the last year go to waste. New York City, Seattle, Minneapolis and Atlanta have called to increase accountability, crackdown on racial profiling and are testing the use of mental health crisis responders. (Bernstein, 2021). According to New York City, increasing accountability must mean defunding the police. New York City Mayor Bill de Blasio (D-NY) pledged to cut funding for the New York Police Department and that ended up being a $1 billion budget cut from the $6 billion budget (Wise, 2020). That is almost a 20% budget cut in a year in which cities have seen a flood of funding. Short of cutting funding, former Los Angeles Mayor Eric Garcetti (D-CA) threw out plans for a police budget hike (Brewster, 2020). Garcetti is now an ambassador in President Biden’s administration.
Finally, you have all the great things that elected Democrats like to express about police departments. Democrat darling Congresswoman Alexandia Ocasio-Cortez (AOC) (D-NY) was quoted saying “Defunding police means defunding police” (Moreno, 2020). AOC did not think that the $1 billion cut in the New York Police Department budget was enough and it only tiptoed around the demands of activists (Moreno, 2020). Fellow New York Democrat, Senate Minority Chuck Schumer (D-NY) blocked a resolution opposing defunding the police. Senator Schumer argued that the resolution was rhetoric. Senator Schumer went on to try to pass a resolution that would require the Senate to take up the Democratic police reform bill as soon as it passed the House. (Carney, 2020). I guess his motto is rhetoric for thee and not for me.
Obviously, it is not Republicans that are defunding the police or want to defund the police. I wouldn’t even say most Democrats want to defund the police. Most citizens support their local police departments. There is a certain percentage of the Democrat base that supports the idea of defunding the police and the leaders of the Democrat party realized they needed support from that group to be elected at a national level last year. The election is in the rearview mirror and now you see Democrats and President Biden largely backing away from that idea. It is such an unpopular idea they even tried to buck the blame off on Republicans. I hope everyone can see through the façade.
Sources
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Politics with Kegan Prentice 