In the months after the murder of George Floyd, San Jose and the rest of the nation has seen a wave of unrest, as racism and inequality once again been brought to the fore. What started as a protest against excessive use of force by police officers has morphed into a conversation about the role and future of police departments in American cities. A common call among activists has been to “defund the police” and reinvest in restorative programs and historically underserved communities. But what does that entail?
Without a doubt, law enforcement, either in the form of the modern SJPD or a different organization, is here to stay. Responding to in-progress violent crime, investigating homicide, and breaking up human trafficking and burglary operations are some of the vital tasks which require law enforcement efforts. But in most other scenarios, law enforcement falls far short of expectations. Without further ado, here is a list of tasks which absolutely must be separated from law enforcement:
Mental health. Police officers are not social workers. Despite milquetoast attempts at “de-escalation training”, police departments in San Jose and the rest of the country are immersed in a culture of the “warrior cop”, where aggression is praised, and every individual is seen as a threat. This poses a grave danger as anywhere from 10-20% of calls fielded by law enforcement involve mentally unstable persons, whom law enforcement are far from equipped to handle. Every single police shooting in San Jose in 2017 has involved a mentally unstable person. Our use of ill-equipped and violently trained police officers as catch-all social workers kills. Our lack of adequate mental health resources kills. Every dollar we spend on SJPD is a dollar we take away from services and response teams to help those individuals. Diverting funds from SJPD means increased funding for mental health teams which can more effectively respond to situations with mentally ill individuals. Defunding the police means supporting our mentally ill neighbors; not killing them.
Homelessness. Like I mentioned earlier, cops are not social workers. Yet 40% of 9-1-1 calls in Berkeley (a microcosm of a nationwide problem) involve homeless or mentally unstable individuals. Police harassment of homeless individuals includes forcibly removing them from their encampments and frequent imprisonment, and does absolutely nothing to improve the conditions of homeless individuals or alleviate the problem. Diverting money from police departments towards social assistance for unhoused individuals, such as social workers, housing (which requires significant zoning reform as well) and addiction therapy would serve to decriminalize homelessness and lead to lasting solutions for our unhoused population. Defunding the police means solving homelessness; not criminalizing it.
Traffic. Traffic stops and enforcement encompass a large part of police activities in San Jose and across the country. Unfortunately, this opens up the door for biased policing which disproportionately targets low-income communities and communities of color. A 2015 study found that San Jose police stopped and curb-sat/handcuffed Blacks and Latinos at disproportionately high rates compared to whites; ironically, criminal evidence was found less frequently on Blacks and Latinos than other ethnic groups. There certainly is a problem here with having humans, with our natural biases, in charge of traffic enforcement. The solution to this issue may lie with automation. Traffic cameras have been proven to reduce driver speeds by as much as 15%, and are an excellent deterrent of reckless driving. However, automated traffic enforcement has the potential to do more harm than good. Inequitable distribution of traffic cameras can lead to an over policing of low-income and minority communities. Meanwhile, the wide-spread collection of surveillance data can lead to the perpetuation of an Orwellian police state where the actions of every citizen is watched. These can be mitigated by ensuring that camera footage is deleted almost immediately after filming if no violations are found, preventing camera footage from being used in anything but traffic cases, and by including community involvement in camera placement. Defunding the police means fair and equitable traffic enforcement; not discriminatory policing.
Drugs. Narcotics arrests are, for many people, a first introduction into the self-destroying cycle of the criminal justice system. For the crime of nothing more than possessing drugs for personal consumption, countless lives, mostly minority, are ruined by long jail sentences; perpetuating poverty, crime, and a cycle of incarceration. Defunding the police means helping addicts; not criminalizing them.
Defunding the police isn’t just about taking money away from cops. It’s about shifting responsibilities from them as well to create a more equitable form of peacekeeping. Unfortunately, our leaders, including Mayor Liccardo, have repeatedly rejected these calls, claiming that defunding SJPD would lead to a spike in violent crime in low-income minority communities. Yet defunding the police shouldn’t- and in most cases doesn’t- seek to hamper our ability to apprehend violent criminals. It’s about taking problems which law enforcement is unable to solve and handing them off to services and organizations which can solve them. And through this, it is possible to create a safer, kinder and more equitable San Jose for all.
Thanks for reading! If you liked this piece please share it and follow me on Twitter at @personopolis. My next piece will be on flags, as well as my vision for a new San Jose flag. From there, I’ll write a few pieces on gentrification and community-focused planning.
Signing off,
AG
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