Consequences of ‘Defund the Police’: Big City Police Departments Bleeding Staff, Unable to Recruit

As crime rates climb across the nation, police departments in several major U.S. cities are facing a crisis, namely, the inability to recruit new police officers. As a result, staffing shortages have led to increased overtime, thinly spread patrols, and a rise in crime rates. 

Violent crimes remained higher during the first half of 2023 compared to the first half of 2019, according to the Council on Criminal Justice. The International Association of Chiefs of Police published a paper called “A Crisis for Law Enforcement” that shows 78% of law enforcement agencies have had “difficulty in recruiting qualified candidates” and that 65% reported having “too few candidates applying to be law enforcement officers.”

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Bill Clinton Warns Democrats Not to Let ‘Defund the Police and Socialism’ Hurt Them This Election

Former President Bill Clinton warned the Democratic Party that it shouldn’t let “defund the police and socialism” damage their chances of winning the Nov. 8 election.

Clinton was asked how the U.S. should handle existing threats to its democracy.

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Commentary: To Save Freedom, Defund Pro Sports

In the last few years, the “Defund the Police” cry has reverberated through many of our cities. The police are not serving our communities, we’re told, and they’re wasting taxpayer money on ineffective services and driving racism. “It’s time to get rid of them,” many yell.

They’re barking up the wrong tree. If the public wants to defund something that’s wasting money and not serving the community, then they should look toward pro sports and defund them.

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Report: Stacey Abrams’ Campaign Spent $450K on Security Despite Backing ‘Defund Police’ Movement

Democratic Georgia gubernatorial candidate Stacey Abrams has doled out hundreds of thousands on private security despite her ties to the Defund the Police movement, according to Fox News.

Abrams’ campaign paid $450,000 to an Atlanta-based security firm called Executive Protection Agencies between December 2021 and April 2022, Fox News reported Tuesday. But Abrams also sits on the board of The Marguerite Casey Foundation — a nonprofit she joined in 2021 that has supported abolishing and defunding police.

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State of Minnesota, Minneapolis Reach Agreement to Address Low Police Staffing

State leaders in Minnesota and the city of Minneapolis reached an agreement to send state police forces to assist with law enforcement staffing issues in the city.

The “joint powers agreements” will allow state forces to “provide high visibility patrol in agreed upon areas and during agreed upon times to help deter crime”

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Numbers of Black Americans Murdered Increased in Wake of Defund the Police Movement: Report

Support for calls across the nation to to defund police departments nationwide and pandemic-related factors has led to an increase in the number of murders of black Americans, according to an analysis by the Manhattan Institute.

The overall murder rate increased 30% from 2020 to 2021, according to data from the Federal Bureau of Investigation.

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Soros Family Continues to Support ‘Defund the Police’ Candidates

George Soros

Far-left billionaire George Soros, along with his daughter Andrea Soros Colombel, is continuing to donate to organizations that bankroll radical candidates who support defunding the police in the United States.

As reported by Fox News, the Soros family has still been donating to a joint fundraising committee that oversees multiple other PACs. The committee, called Lead The Way 2022, includes the Way to Lead PAC, the campaign committee of radical Congresswoman Cori Bush (D-Mo.), and the campaigns of up to 12 other far-left political candidates running for the U.S. Congress.

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U.S. Civil Rights Commissioners to AG Merrick Garland: U.S. Attorneys Must ‘Increase Prosecutions in Cities Where Local Prosecutors’ Are Soft on Crime

Attorney General Merrick Garland

In a letter obtained by The Star News Network, four commissioners of the U.S. Commission on Civil Rights express their “urgent concerns” to U.S. Attorney General Merrick Garland about the radical increase in violent crime in America, and ask him to direct the Department of Justice to escalate prosecutions of violent criminals.

U.S. Civil Rights Commissioners Peter Kirsanow (R), Gail Heriot (I), J. Christian Adams (R), and Stephen Gilchrist (R), wrote to Garland Thursday, “not on behalf of the Commission as a whole,” of their concerns about the significant rise in crime “that has affected our nation over the past two years.”

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After Defund the Police Changes Local Sex Offender Policies, Students Feel ‘Compromised’

With cops in Austin, Texas, not supervising “hundreds of sex offender cases” due to Defund the Police budget cuts, Campus Reform spoke with students at the University of Texas at Austin (UT Austin) about their safety.

“The situation in the city of Austin has been critical for some time ever since the city of Austin council decided to defund the police unanimously in the summer of 2020, and reduce their police budget by one-third,” sophomore Carter Moxley said.

Moxley also discussed UT Austin President Jay Hartzell’s decision last November to “increase [University of Texas Police Department] patrol in the west campus area and develop additional options to enhance safety for [the] students” after a violent incident near campus.

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Commentary: The ‘New Normal’ and the Assault on Reason

Our political situation is so chaotic and strange right now that we can’t take anything for granted—including what is normal. So it’s often necessary to explain what may seem obvious to readers of American Greatness, but is regarded as strange or almost incomprehensible to other people. 

For example, it is obvious to me, and probably to you, that today’s “progressive” agenda is actually pushing our country back to a more primitive past. 

Consider some of the most urgent priorities of woke ideology:

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Wokeness Is a Multi-Billion Dollar Business in America, and It Has Some Dems Scared

An outpouring of grants to activist groups promoting race-based ideology is causing problems for some Democrats by highlighting the most unpopular beliefs of party members, according to an op-ed published in The New York Times.

Charitable support for “racial equity” projects skyrocketed after the death of George Floyd in June 2020. These projects received $3.3 billion from 2011 to 2019, then $12.7 billion and $11.6 billion in 2020 and 2021, respectively, according to the NYT op-ed.

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Minneapolis Mayor Says Violent Juvenile Crime Increasing During Pandemic

Minneapolis Mayor Jacob Frey (D) says schools must stay open despite the latest surge in COVID-19 cases in order to keep youth residents from committing violent crimes. 

“We’ve gotta keep the schools open. This is very clear to me,” Frey reportedly said. “Yes, we need to make sure we’re abiding by the necessary safety precautions. Yes, we need to make sure anyone from parents to teachers to students are protected in full from the dangers associated with a global pandemic, and we need to make sure the students are in the schools and that they’re able to learn.”

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Minneapolis to Increase Police Department’s Budget, Effectively Ending ‘Defund the Police’ Movement

On Friday, the Minneapolis city council approved a budget that would increase funding for the Minneapolis Police Department (MPD), restoring the department’s budget to what it was prior to the beginning of the “Defund the Police” movement, as reported by the Epoch Times.

The $1.6 billion budget, approved by the city council and Mayor Jacob Frey (D-Minn.), includes an allocation of $191 million for the MPD, marking a dramatic shift from just one month earlier when activists were on the verge of completely eliminating the department altogether.

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Minnesota Rep. Angie Craig Took Part in Fundraiser with Group That Supports ‘Defunding the Police’

Angie Craig, a congresswoman from Minnesota, recently appeared at a fundraiser hosted by an organization known for its repeated calls to “defund the police.”

The Washington Free Beacon reported that the fundraiser, hosted by the Heart of LA Democratic Club, took place last Thursday at a home in Culver City. The group required proof of COVID-19 vaccination for entry and offered “contribution levels” of $50, $100, $250, $500, $1,000, and $2,900 to support Craig’s reelection to the U.S. House.

Craig, for her part, has not aligned herself with efforts to “defund the police,” unlike many other progressives in Minnesota and throughout the United States in 2020. The congresswoman faced heavy progressive backlash after openly opposing the Minneapolis charter amendment to replace the police department, even though her district doesn’t include any of Minneapolis.

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Ellison Admits ‘Defund Police’ Slogan Was a Tactical Mistake for Progressives

Keith Ellison speaking

Minnesota Attorney General Keith Ellison apparently thinks Democrats should have sought to defund the police without saying “defund the police.”

“I think allowing this moniker, ‘defund the police,’ to ever get out there, was not a good thing,” he recently told Washington Post reporter David Weigel. This comment followed an election in Minneapolis in which voters rejected a measure that would have replaced the police with a largely unarmed “Department of Public Safety.”

While Ellison’s most recent comment has drawn significant media attention, this position is not new — the AG has long wanted to reduce policing, only taking issue with the slogan his fellow progressives often use.

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George Soros, Unions, Other Far-Left Entities Donated Heavily to Defeat Pro-Police Ballot Measure in Austin, Texas

Police lights on top of car

A ballot measure aimed at increasing the number of police officers in the city of Austin, Texas was defeated in Tuesday’s election after hundreds of thousands of dollars was spent against it by George Soros, unions, and other organizations from outside of Texas, as reported by Fox News.

The question before voters, known as Prop A, would have required the city to hire two police officers for every 1,000 residents, and would subsequently increase officer training to accommodate the new hires. The measure was put on the ballot in response to a surge in violent crime in the wake of last year’s violent race riots, and a subsequent decline in the number of officers due to the “defund the police” movement as well as increasingly strict vaccine mandates.

The bulk of the money spent against Prop A came from outside the state of Texas. Chief among them was the far-left Equity PAC, which was given $500,000 by George Soros’s Open Society foundation, contributing to a total war chest of around $1.2 million. Other culprits include the equally far-left group known as the 1630 Fund, which spent $100,000 against Prop A, and the Charles and Lynn Schusterman Family Philanthropies, which spent another $100,000. Another Soros-linked group, the Fairness Project, spent $200,000 to defeat Prop A.

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Judge Strikes Down Ballot Language in Minneapolis Effort to Replace Police

Minneapolis Police Department

After a legal challenge, a ballot question on Minneapolis’ November election ballot has be struck down in court. 

“Tuesday morning, a Hennepin County judge tossed the initially approved language by the Minneapolis City Council to be on the November ballot regarding the public safety charter amendment,” KTSP said. 

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Judge Strikes Down Ballot Language in Minneapolis Effort to Replace Police

Minneapolis Police Department

After a legal challenge, a ballot question on Minneapolis’ November election ballot has be struck down in court. 

“Tuesday morning, a Hennepin County judge tossed the initially approved language by the Minneapolis City Council to be on the November ballot regarding the public safety charter amendment,” KTSP said. 

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Senate Unanimously Votes Against Defunding the Police

The Senate early Wednesday unanimously approved an amendment to its proposed budget that opposed defunding the police.

The amendment, offered by Alabama Republican Sen. Tommy Tuberville, came during the Senate’s overnight vote-a-rama, a marathon session during consideration of Democrats’ $3.5 trillion budget where members can offer unlimited amendments. While the votes are non-binding, they can sometimes be politically tricky for senators as their colleagues force on-the-record positions on contentious issues.

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Battle to Replace Minneapolis Police Department Heats Up With Ballot Explainer Lawsuit

Minneapolis Police officer with dog and children

The battle over a November ballot measure to replace the Minneapolis Police Department (MPD) is now subject to a lawsuit, as anti-police activists cry foul.

“The Yes 4 Minneapolis campaign filed a lawsuit against the city and the city clerk’s office,” Fox 9 reported. “The group accuses the city of ‘attempting to mislead voters’ about a proposed amendment that would replace the MPD with a department of public safety.”

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Rising Crime Forces Liberals to Reckon with Their Stance on the Police

by Ailan Evans   As rates of violent crime continue to rise across the country and once-safe neighborhoods face increased dangers, many liberal communities are having to confront their complicated relationship with the police. Following the killing of George Floyd in May 2020, the defund the police movement attracted attention and support…

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Over 200 Officers Have Left the Minneapolis Police Department Since Last May

Over 200 police officers have left, are in the process of leaving, or are on extended leave from the Minneapolis Police Department. 

Several police officers explained it is due to lack of support and the feeling that they had to defend themselves throughout the course of the riots that plagued the city last summer, according to a report from WCCO in Minneapolis. 

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Minneapolis Mayor Admits Anti-Police Rhetoric has Led to Crime Spike

They mayor of Minneapolis, who himself has bashed police in order to placate the Black Lives Matter mob, now says that calls to “defund the police” have led to a spike in crime in the city. 

“The violence needs to stop, it’s unacceptable. People deserve to feel safe in their neighborhood, they deserve to be able to send their kids out to the sidewalk to play and to recreate without bullets flying by. That’s unacceptable. We should be holding these perpetrators accountable,” Mayor Jacob Frey (D) said.

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Police Departments Say Budget Cuts Are the Reason They’ve Been Unable to Hire New Officers

Two police officers walking in front of LED American flag

Multiple police departments told the Daily Caller News Foundation that recruiting officers is not an issue, but budget constraints have limited their ability to increase manpower.

Almost a year after George Floyd died during an arrest where former Minneapolis police officer Derek Chauvin knelt on his neck for nearly nine minutes resulting in nationwide civil unrest and the defund the police movement, most police departments say they still have a sufficient number of candidates but lack the funding to recruit them.

“The Minneapolis Police Department, like every department, has seen a drop in application numbers over the last several years,” Minneapolis Police Department Spokesperson John Elder told the DCNF. “Whereas we have seen a reduction in applications, we still have ample qualified candidates who wish to be Minneapolis Police Officers and Cadets [and the department’s] recruitment efforts are ongoing.”

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Hamilton College Student Leaders Work to ‘Defund the Police,’ Claim ‘White Supremacists’ Are on Campus

Hamilton College

Following the verdict in the Derek Chauvin trial, students and faculty at Hamilton College received an email denoting some of them as white supremacists and calling for the admissions office to better block such students from enrolling in the future.

It was part of a larger push to grow a “defund the police” effort at the private, New York college.

The email came from leadership at the school’s Student Assembly and was signed by President Saphire Ruiz as well as Fall Vice President Eric Stenzel and Spring Vice President Christian Hernandez Barragan.

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Residents Complain About Lack of Police in Minneapolis

Minneapolis Police Department

Nearly a year after the death of George Floyd, prompting calls from activists and Democrat leaders to defund the police, residents of Minneapolis are complaining that police won’t respond to their calls. 

“George Floyd Square has been a place for mourning and healing for the thousands who pay a visit,” WCCO reported. “But for the people who live there, once night falls, they say it becomes a place where lawlessness abounds.”

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Minneapolis Police Scrambling for Staff After Riots, ‘Defund Police’ Campaign

Minneapolis Police Department

The Minneapolis Police Department is in dire straights as it prepares for possible violence during the trial of one of its former officers.

“Minneapolis has about 200 fewer police officers available to work as the city tries to rebound from a violent year and prepare for more potential unrest,” The Star-Tribune reported. “In the short term, the city is seeking aid from other law enforcement agencies as it plans for the March trial for former Officer Derek Chauvin, who is charged with killing George Floyd.”

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Councilmember Cancels Meetings with Community Amid Attempt to Gut MPD

Minneapolis City Councilmember Phillipe Cunningham once claimed that “community engagement” is key to defunding the police. Now, Cunningham has canceled his “Community Office Hours” after facing backlash due to the council’s efforts to defund law enforcement.

Cunningham has served on the council since 2017, when he became the second female-to-male transgender person elected to public office in the U.S. Cunningham also took a key role in the push to amend the City Charter to defund the police in June, and presently heads up the continued action towards this goal.

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Minneapolis City Council Votes to Raise Property Taxes, Cut $8 million from Police Budget But Aims for Higher Police Staffing Target

The Minneapolis City Council voted to cut $8 million from the Police Department (MPD) in their 2021 budget. However, the Council also also added a caveat to allow for additional future police recruitment, likely dodging a veto from Mayor Jacob Frey.

In a 7-6 vote Wednesday night, the council’s decision doesn’t change the number of officers in 2021, but sets a higher target number for replacing officers who are currently out on leave for post-traumatic stress disorders or other reasons with the council’s authorization.

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Seattle Set to Slash Police Budget Amid Crime Spike

Democratic Seattle Mayor Jenny Durkan is set to sign a bill that would slash police funding amid a citywide crime spike.

Durkan’s signature would cut police training and overtime funds by 18% after the city council voted overwhelmingly in favor of the budget reductions, according to Fox News. Activists within local government unsuccessfully sought a 50% slash in law enforcement funding, but the council did approve the transfer of 911 dispatchers, parking officers and mental health workers out of the Seattle Police Department (SPD), Fox reported.

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Rep Jim Hagedorn Only MN Leader to Sign Pledge Opposing Any ‘Defund the Police’ Bills, Resolutions, Movements

Representative Jim Hagedorn (R-MN-1) is the only Minnesotan leader to sign the Police Pledge, a promise to oppose any bills, resolutions, or movements to defund the police. No other leaders from the state have signed this pledge yet.
Hagedorn signed the pledge Thursday. He credits his decision to American government leadership excusing criminal behavior while blaming law enforcement.

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DNC Panel Features ‘Mermaid Queen-King’ Who Calls for the Abolition of ICE, Police, and Prisons

The Democratic National Convention on Tuesday featured a panelist who identifies as a “nonbinary/gender transcendent mermaid Queen-King” and who called for the abolition of the police, U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) and prisons.

According to the panelist’s Wake Forest University bio, J Mai is a “Black-Vietnamese, transgender nonbinary/gender transcendent mermaid Queen-King,” who recently became a “licensed minister in the Progressive National Baptist Church.”

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Commentary: Joe Biden Goes All in on Defund the Police with Kamala Harris VP Pick

Former Vice President Joe Biden has selected U.S. Sen. Kamala Harris (D-Calif.) as his running mate and presumptive Democratic Party nominee for Vice President in the 2020 election as the Biden campaign goes all in on the defund the police issue.

In June Sen. Harris supported cutting $150 million from the Los Angeles Police Department (LAPD) budget and taking the police force below 10,000 for the first time in more than a decade.

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Proposal to Disband the Minneapolis Police Blocked

Minneapolis Police Department

The Minneapolis Charter Council on Wednesday blocked the controversial ballot proposal to disband the police. 

In a 10-5 vote, the city’s Charter Council opted to take an extra 90 days to review the proposal. This means that voters will not have the opportunity to vote on the proposal in November. In an online meeting, the Charter Commission members complained that the new measure was vague, might run afoul of state law, and put the council in charge of the proposed department, according to Forbes.

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Police Tell Minnesota Citizens to ‘Be Prepared’ as Two Prisons Close

Citing financial woes The Minnesota Department of Corrections (MNDOC) will be closing two prisons.

Prisoners from the Togo and Willow River prisons will be transferred to other facilities and  100 employees will be laid off as a result of the move. These cuts come only a few weeks after 48 Department of Corrections Employees were let go in response to budget concerns resulting from the coronavirus. 

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Police Budgets Nationwide In Crisis After Covid, Activism Cut Funding in Half: Study

Nashville Police

Police Departments across the country are in crisis as calls to defund the police, rioting, and the Covid Crisis threaten to sap existing resources. 

A new study by the Police Executive Research Forum showed that almost half of the 258 departments surveyed are facing budget cuts. Portland City council approved a $15,000,000 dollar budget cut last month as the city struggled with riots. The Portland Police Department was forced to pay over $5,000,000 in overtime to deal with the unrest. 

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Commentary: The Impossibility of a Police-Less Society

The hue and cry for a police-less society is serious stuff. For some advocates, the term “defund the police” refers simply to making victimless crimes (drug use, etc.) the responsibility of social workers rather than police officers. But to others it means eliminating law enforcement entirely.

Is such a condition possible? Can a society function without any law enforcement agents? 

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Two-Thirds of Americans Don’t Want to Defund Police: Poll

A majority of Americans disagree with the call to defund the police and the proposed reallocation of funding, a national poll taken amid demonstrations for George Floyd found.

Almost two-thirds of Americans are against defunding law enforcement while 34% agree with the movement, according to an ABC News/Ipsos poll released Friday. When asked about reducing the police budget to put resources toward other health and social programs, 60% of Americans opposed the idea while 39% supported it.

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Democrats Bow to Progressives, Propose Sweeping Police Overhaul Measures

Democrats proposed a far-reaching overhaul of police procedures and accountability Monday, a sweeping legislative response to the mass protests denouncing the deaths of black Americans in the hands of law enforcement.

The political outlook is deeply uncertain for the legislation in a polarized election year. President Donald Trump is staking out a tough “law and order” approach in the face of the outpouring of demonstrations and demands to re-imagine policing in America.

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