“There is no justification for sparing police functions from—at minimum—the same scrutiny to which policymakers are now subjecting other critical public goods and services. Although policing is sometimes imagined to correlate directly with safety, there is evidence that the opposite can be true: In New York, measures of crime fell both after a court ended stop-and-frisk policing and when officers organized a work stoppage to protest attempted accountability for Eric Garner’s death.”
Brian Highsmith, American Prospect

“The U.S. spends 18.7 percent of its annual output on social programs, compared with 31.2 percent by France and 25.1 percent by Germany. It spends just 0.6 percent of its GDP on benefits for families with children, one-sixth of what Sweden spends and one-third the rich-country average… Does this spending make the country safer than its peers? No. Violent crime has reduced markedly in the past few decades. But America’s murder rate is still higher than the average among member countries of the Organization for Economic Cooperation and Development, and about four times the rate in Canada.”
Annie Lowrey, The Atlantic

“The failure of police in [black and brown] communities is twofold: The harassment generates backlash and distrust. But so, too, does the police departments’ inability to solve serious crimes — in some black and brown neighborhoods, the percent of murders that lead to an arrest can fall to the single digits… It’s this dynamic of simultaneous overpolicing and underpolicing that’s led to so much distrust in the police in minority communities. It leads many to believe that cops are not only harassing them, but also not even taking the time to protect them — to do the job that the police are there for.”
German Lopez, Vox

“The Nordic countries, as usual, have an instructive example for America. These nations have both enormously smaller police departments and prison systems than the United States, and much less violent crime, especially murders. Emulating their basic approach could allow American cities to cleanse themselves of police abuse and still enjoy lower crime… Undoubtedly one major factor is the generous Nordic welfare state…

“On the other hand, the extraordinary Nordic success at solving crime must also play a part. Since Nordic police are not busy hassling desperate poor people or suppressing protests of their own abuse, they can focus all their effort on catching offenders, which they do very well. Because virtually all serious crime is in fact punished, there is much less of it — in keeping with research (and common sense) suggesting that criminal impunity is another driver of crime…

“A much more generous welfare state and better public services would require much more taxation, but it could also be partly funded by cutting the amount spent on police and (especially) prisons that are plainly failing abysmally to control crime anyways.”
Ryan Cooper, The Week

Minneapolis City Council Member Steve Fletcher writes in defense of disbanding the Minneapolis Police Department that “We had already pushed for pilot programs to dispatch county mental health professionals to mental health calls, and fire department EMTs to opioid overdose calls, without police officers. We have similarly experimented with unarmed, community-oriented street teams on weekend nights downtown to focus on de-escalation. We could similarly turn traffic enforcement over to cameras and, potentially, our parking enforcement staff, rather than our police department…

“Our city needs a public safety capacity that doesn’t fear our residents. That doesn’t need a gun at a community meeting. That considers itself part of our community. That doesn’t resort quickly to pepper spray when people are understandably angry. That doesn’t murder black people…

“We can invest in cultural competency and mental health training, de-escalation and conflict resolution. We can send a city response [that] is appropriate to each situation and makes it better. We can resolve confusion over a $20 grocery transaction without drawing a weapon or pulling out handcuffs… We can declare policing as we know it a thing of the past, and create a compassionate, non-violent future.”
Steve Fletcher, Time