Defunding police isn’t eliminating police

Opinion

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This article was published 08/01/2023 (715 days ago), so information in it may no longer be current.

THE issue of violent crime has again risen to the top of Winnipeggers’ minds. Political leaders are beginning their typical task of turning public fear into votes by offering simplistic solutions.

That means promises to expand police funding and resources. But is policing the best way to tackle crime?

Consider the often-misunderstood idea of “defunding the police”: recently in Manitoba, we’ve seen politicians hijack the term to send simplistic messages that appeal to voters. Premier Heather Stefanson is equating the term with being “soft on crime” and accusing her opponents of supporting it. NDP Leader Wab Kinew is denying it and shunning the term.

But defunding the police does not mean allowing criminals to run amok.

Although many people equate police with crime prevention, that is not their role in our system. Police function as the right-arm of the prosecution; their role is to round up people when there is reason to believe that a crime has occurred.

Stefanson’s recent proposal for a police unit to apprehend violent offenders is a perfect example of this. Its purpose will be to round up people who have already committed violence, based on the assumption that since they offended once, they will offend again.

Using police as the main avenue for responding to crime isn’t efficient. Looking at Winnipeg police reports, only about 40 per cent of violent crime investigations have resulted in criminal charges. In 2021 in Winnipeg, only 10.1 per cent of property crime investigations led to charges. This is mainly because it is very difficult to gather evidence after a crime has occurred.

Even if the goal is to discourage potential criminals by making examples out of convicts, that can only happen after charges have been laid and then also proven in court.

Further, many police calls are not for criminal events. In 2021, Winnipeg police responded to 20,704 wellness checks. They also responded to 17,652 domestic events, of which only 12 per cent led to charges. Those have always been the most common calls to police.

By comparison, police responded to 10,933 calls related to violent events. Winnipeg’s recent Alternative Response pilot program attempts to include mental-health experts in wellness checks. However, in the vast majority of cases, the experts were not available or police determined they were not necessary.

Police have argued they should always be involved, owing to the risk of violence, but also admit less than half of wellness calls are medium- or high-risk. Resources could be shifted toward dispatching trained health professionals to the low-risk calls instead of police and ensuring experts are always available.

Nevertheless, the program is still reactionary rather than preventive.

Defunding the police is about thinking more holistically about safety and well-being. The main priority is to structure a society with fair and just policies that allow access to basic needs such as affordable housing and nutrition. Priorities also include such proven crime-prevention strategies as supports for parents in providing a nurturing environment, child care, activities associated with community cohesion, and substance-abuse intervention and supports such as supervised injection sites.

Defunding the police is not some outlandish ideal that can never be achieved. Many cities are diverting millions of dollars from police budgets to social supports. In November 2021, advocates in Minneapolis presented approximately 22,000 signatures from residents proposing an amendment to the city’s charter that would replace its police department with a department of public safety.

The mandate of the new department would focus on public safety in a way that co-ordinates prevention programs with policing in evidence-based proportions. In effect, it would put prevention on equal footing with policing.

This is an example of how even “abolishing” a police department does not mean there will be no police. The question was added to the city’s mayoral election ballot in November 2021; that amendment was defeated, with 56 per cent in opposition and 44 per cent in support.

That’s not a wide margin for a change of that magnitude. Analyses have suggested many of those who opposed the amendment don’t support the status quo, either – they just wanted more detail on how the new department would function.

Winnipeg, more than many other cities, relies on policing for a broad range of services. Winnipeg’s allocation of about 27 per cent of city funds to policing is the highest among major Canadian cities. Community services, by contrast, receive about 10 per cent of the city’s budget.

If politicians continue to exploit public fear by associating defunding police with being soft on crime, this disparity will continue to grow. But politicians do it, because they are afraid of losing votes.

Winnipeggers care about each other’s well-being, and if they understand these issues, maybe associating oneself with the concept of “defunding police” will become a political winner.

Curtis Pankratz is an associate professor in the faculty of sociology at the University of Winnipeg.