Debate Desk
Should Cities Defund the Police and Send Social Workers Instead?
Cities that cut police budgets in 2020 mostly reversed course; social workers have a role, but they cannot replace officers when violence is under way.
The claim
After the death of George Floyd in 2020, advocates called for shifting money from police departments to housing, mental-health care and violence-prevention programs. Armed officers, they said, are sent to problems that need counselors, and every encounter with police carries a risk of harm.
The answer in three points
- Many calls do involve mental illness or homelessness, and a trained responder can handle some of them well. Conservatives can support pilot programs of that kind. But a program that adds a counselor is not the same as one that removes officers, and the two should not be confused.
- Police do more than answer calls. Their presence deters crime, they investigate and solve cases, and they respond when violence is already happening. A social worker cannot stop an armed robbery in progress, and the people who live in high-crime neighborhoods are the ones who bear the cost of fewer officers.
- The experiment was tried. Several cities cut or froze police budgets in 2020 and 2021, saw murder rise and then restored funding. When Minneapolis put a measure to the voters in 2021 to replace its police department, it was defeated.
The communities with the highest crime rates want safe streets and good policing together.
The numbers
- The FBI's Uniform Crime Reports show murders in the United States rose nearly 30 percent in 2020, the largest single-year increase on record.
- Minneapolis voters rejected a 2021 ballot question to replace the police department with a department of public safety, according to the Hennepin County election results.
- The Council on Criminal Justice reported that murders fell in 2023 and 2024 after peaking in 2021, a period in which many cities restored police funding.
What they will say next
"Police do not prevent crime, they respond to it." Research that counted officers and crimes in many cities found that more police reduce serious crime, especially violent crime. Visible presence changes behavior.
"Money spent on prevention works better." Some prevention works and should be funded alongside police. It is not an either-or choice, and the best programs pair community groups with enforcement against the small number of people who commit most of the violence.
"The police abuse their power." Misconduct should be punished, and good departments use training, body cameras and oversight to prevent it. The answer to bad policing is better policing, not none.
"Black communities want change." Surveys of residents in high-crime neighborhoods have repeatedly shown a desire for the same or more police presence, alongside better conduct. Listen to those who live there.
The goal everyone shares is safe streets and respect for the law. Neither is possible with fewer officers and no plan.
"Some departments have a record of abuse." They have, and the remedy lies in leadership, training and accountability, including prosecution of crimes by officers. Residents of those neighborhoods also want protection from violence, and both can be pursued.