Everyone wonders where "defund the police" movements go as 2022 witnessed record-high homicides crime rates in major U.S. cities and officer deaths. That's right; they probably crawled up to wherever they came from after realizing they were utterly wrong by calling for defunding the force.
Different versions of the demand to "defund" or redistribute funding from police departments to other community initiatives were common after the May 2020 death of George Floyd, a Black Minneapolis man killed by Derek Chauvin, a White police officer.
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However, since then, there has been little change to police budgets in Democratic-leaning cities since 2020 as departments across the country face staffing shortages.
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"Most of the jurisdictions who called to defund the police have quietly refunded their police departments. They have quietly asked for more law enforcement personnel," retired Sgt. Betsy Brantner Smith, the spokesperson for the National Police Association and a 29-year police veteran who currently trains officers, told Fox News Digital. "… So, you're hearing a different tone now."
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Police staffing shortages have been prompted partly by COVID-19 and recruiting or retaining issues as officers in large cities move to smaller, suburban towns, according to both Brantner Smith and Lisa Dadio, a former lieutenant from the New Haven Police Department and Assistant Dean and Director of the Center for Advanced Policing at the University of New Haven.
"In several of your larger cities, budgets have been increased to police departments," Dadio said. "And the big thing is: people don't feel safe. So, in a city that thrives on tourists coming and entertainment, if people don't feel safe, all of that's going to be impacted, and [it] impacts tax on food and beverages and entertainment. It really has a catastrophic effect across everything."
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Politicians began contending in 2020 that pulling funds from police departments and putting the funds toward other community investments such as schools would decrease crime and make cities safer. Some claimed police make communities less safe by hurting or killing innocent civilians.
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Rep. Ilhan Omar, D-Minn., said in a June 8, 2020, tweet that the "defund the police" movement, which Minneapolis City Council members spearheaded after Floyd's death, "is one of reimagining the current police system to build an entity that does not violate us, while relocating funds to invest in community services."
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"Let's be clear, the people who now oppose this, have always opposed calls for systematic change," she wrote.
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Omar also said in 2020 that "violence is a basic part of police interactions with communities of color." The congresswoman has described her local police department as "beyond reform" and "rotten."
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But despite demands to reduce police department funding in the city, the police budget only dropped by about $1 million, from $183 million in 2020 to $181.9 million in 2021. Meanwhile, there were 96 homicides in Minneapolis in 2021 – a near-record for the Midwestern city – and a 57% increase in carjackings.
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