There seems to be a growing movement in America to “Defund the Police”. On face value the #Defundpolice immediately causes me to want to scroll past, but as I make it a point to challenge my own view points as a mental obstacle course, I will read the material.

To this point, I do this with most topics, to include things that go against what I know to be true, like the “flat earth theory”. Seldom does it change my opinion but I keep an open mind, so in this article I will pursue this topic. As a reminder change is not always bad.

I have seen a wide range of what this means, and it does not appear to have a cohesive argument. This raises serious red flags for me, but nevertheless I continue.

On the mild end we have arguments for-

*Reduced Police funding

*Redistribution of Govt. spending

*Police should be focused on crimes and criminals

*Police are not mental health workers

*Police are not medical professionals

*Police not education specialist

*Investing in our communities

*Funding our schools

*Funding our Hospitals

*Funding our infrastructure

These are all taken from post I have seen that are not seeking to attack Law Enforcement, but use the #defundthepolice. I will make an attempt to go through the list.

“Reduced Police Funding”. Obviously this has to be part of their argument, but have you looked through a Police Departments budget? In most cases Police Departments are forced to do more with less. What this results in is reduced training for officers.

If you are talking salaries, you will reduce the number of qualified candidates applying for the position. That is 100% a fact. I do not think that would be a wise strategy.

 I think if we take this option of reduced spending the person making the argument needs to have a clear understanding of a Police Departments budget and spending.

If there is excessive spending, the libertarian in me would agree with you, in fact that should be applied to all areas of Government. Not at the expense of lack of training and salaries effecting potential applicants.

“Redistribution of Govt. spending”. This goes along with my point above. Just show me where the excess is in the Police Department, where it is going, and how it will have a greater impact. In my experience while more demands have been placed on Law Enforcement, spending and increases in personnel have not reflected this increased demand.

“Police should be focused on crimes and criminals”. I am also going to address the next topic, “Police are not mental health workers” along with this.

I agree with the fact Police are more than ever asked to wear numerous different hats. Police in general excel at this. In most domestic arguments I have gone to I tell the couple I am a Band-Aid for a more serious issue that needs to be addressed.

I can de-escalate the situation for the temporary, but I am not a marriage counselor. Do I enjoy going to Domestic Disturbances, Mentally and emotionally distressed calls for service? I can tell you it is not the highlight of my career. What I will tell you is my colleagues do a phenomenal job at stepping into these roles.

If society truly does not want officers going to these events then I will not drag my feet and say absolutely not, saying this is the role of Law Enforcement. I will ask, strike that demand, as a citizen, with the mental health services field growing and becoming a bigger role they be trained and sworn to the U.S. Constitution.

While Law Enforcement comes under a lot of scrutiny for Constitutional rights issues, it seems “civilian” counterparts do not. I know some reading this may say Police do not have a general regard for people’s rights; I have seen Police Officers care more about Constitutional rights than the average citizen.

In fact, when firearm rights become topics in the MSM I see officers become extremely vocal and to the point about their commitment to their oath. Mental Health has an incredible capability of trampling our rights.

For a Police Officer to take a person into custody for a criminal offense it takes probable cause of a crime having been committed. In Virginia the first step in taking a person into custody for Mental Health is an Emergency Custody Order (ECO) based on a person being a danger to himself or others.

A danger to himself. This can come from an Officer’s personal observations, or from a witness’s observations as long as they are willing to be a petitioner for the next step, Temporary Detention Order (TDO). For the vast majority of officers, they take the time to dissect statements and observations from witnesses before risking liability by taking the person into custody.

My concern with the rise of “Red Flag Laws” and people’s feelings on what is a threat to others is, passing the torch on to people not bound by oath can result in an erosion of civil liberties.

“Police are not medical professionals”. I have just seen this in arguments, but it was just that, a single statement. I would like to see what the argument is, I am not just dismissing it.

We do on occasion get dispatched alongside Fire and EMS, and on occasion will be first onscene. I do not understand the negative in having someone who is more highly trained in first aid and CPR onscene who will be relieved by the highly trained Fire and EMS personnel. In most situations seconds count.

“Police are not education specialist”. Again it is the single statement without context or argument. Since Police obviously do not broadly teach classes to the youth, I believe it may be an argument to remove Officers from the schools, School Resource Officers (SRO’s). This is already happening in schools around me.

The officers in the schools do provide a huge benefit as onscene security in the case of an attack. While I was truly appalled at the actions of the SRO assigned to the Stoneman Douglas High School in Parkland Florida, the vast majority of SRO’s would give their lives in a heartbeat for our children.

If you want to remove SRO’s I would like to see them replaced with armed security. I have never served in the role as SRO but I do know they provide other services within the school, and actively seek alternatives to enforcement of the law for students. They additionally build a rapport with the students that does build a foundation for a better LE/community relationship in the future.

“Investing in our communities”. We spend a phenomenal amount in our communities as is, but come up with where the money will be spent and how it will be effective.

“Funding our schools”. The County that I work in already provides the school with greater than 50% of the General funds. This is over one billion in spending. I, as a tax payer, would like a breakdown of where that money is already going, and whether we can rework the already massive budget to produce better results. It certainly is not going to the under-paid teachers whose jobs are harder than ever.

“Funding our Hospitals”. The Hospitals in my area are privately funded, but let’s say they aren’t. Knowing several people in the medical field there is incredible waste in the Medical field at the administrator and management level. As a tax payer I would want more oversight on where my money was going, and how it would benefit the community.

“Funding our infrastructure”. Great, we need to take a good look at our aging infrastructure. I think this is a great threat to the stability of our nation; but again show me where the money is going and how it will benefit the infrastructure. I do not want my taxes going to waste in what is already a wasteful sector of government.

These are all very solid talking points as long as you are willing to do some critical thinking. Just arbitrarily throwing hashtags out, but not being willing to meet me intellectually in the middle with ideas is not going to sell me.

We are talking about fundamentally changing a system that has been in the works for generations at this point. A hashtag isn’t good enough.

To that point those that use the hashtag but make the above arguments also argue it doesn’t mean “getting rid of the police”. Ok for you, but you are using the same hashtag that others who absolutely do mean that utilize.

Make no mistake there are people who want to live without police. When everyone is using the same slogan then you cannot distance yourself from it. You are furthering their voice. The city counsel of Minneapolis just voted to abolish their department. Regardless of that one city people across the Nation have in fact been very vocal about abolishing the police entirely.

Throughout history we have hired people to protect our lives and property. This allowed them to invest their time in other pursuits other than facing losses or defending their property at all times. I will not spend too much time here, but if you are of that opinion do you really think crime stops because Police will not be there to submit the statistics.

 Are you willing to take full responsibility for the protection of your life and property? For my libertarian friends do not take this the wrong way as me saying I support a nanny state. On the contrary I think we should all have the ability to defend ourselves, but having people with the task of keeping evil at bay makes for a less chaotic world for all of us.

We also have those who physically cannot defend themselves. Do we leave them to the wolves and say “Sorry, life dealt you a bad hand, good luck though”, or do we want a highly trained group, sworn to the Constitution that is willing to hold the line and say “On my watch you can sleep easy because if it in my power no one and nothing is going to harm you tonight”?

I actually appreciate the conversation, and welcome it. People concerned about their Government is a good thing. Doing this on the premises that police are killers, worse than criminals is not. I have seen a lot of cases brought up, each case unique, and for every case where a mistake was made and tragic loss of life occurred there are too many more to count that did not.

 In a lot of the cases that I have seen circulated when you actually research the events that transpired there are extenuating circumstances behind it that a one liner does not come close to covering. Police officers excel in their communities and go to great lengths to preserve life. The failure rate is incredibly low, but as long as there are mistakes, there is room for improvement.

This is a good conversation to have. People’s focus on the Government’s fiscal responsibility has, over the past few decades, been a dying focus. Good ideas such as “don’t call the police, talk to your neighbor about their loud music”. Great point! I applaud this and encourage everyone to seek mediation rather than confrontation. Just don’t do it by painting Police Officers as the reapers of the community.

If you are not in the camp of ending Law Enforcement, then I say we should be spending more on Police training. Some of the issues brought up during this time can be mitigated through training. If you want and agree with Law Enforcement, taking away their budget will create a greater rise of mistakes.

Finally, if you want to be seriously engaged in this debate go out and talk to the police department. Better yet do a ride-along if your local department allows it. Multiple if you can. Go out and see what it is officers do, and the precision in which they do it. After gaining data for yourself come back and analyze that data from real world experience.

Reading and learning from other people is good don’t get me wrong, but it is only good until you can replace it with your own lived experience. Other people can be misleading so bridge that gap, I think you will find it eye opening. We are talking about making decisions that can have a huge impact on all of our lives, so take the time to do thorough research.

I think for most of us seeing what is going on in Seattle with the six block “CHAZ” is not the vision we want for our Country. That is an area with no Law Enforcement and a good look at the natural evolution of the consequences of a world without Police. Unfortunately, I think we may have more data to pull from in the coming year out of Minneapolis.

For most people seeing the single image with these bullet points they might agree, yeah that seems great. When you really breakdown each topic you can quickly find it is a far more complicated topic than simply hitting a share button and throwing down a hashtag. Please research the topic thoroughly before we make such a huge societal change.