Sputnik spoke to Dr. David Thomas, a retired African American police officer and professor of forensic studies at Florida Gulf Coast University, who shared his thoughts on how police budget cuts might impact the american society and what challenges this policy could bring to the local law enforcement agencies.
Sputnik: The Georgia State House approved a bill limiting police budget cuts to no more than 5 percent, and Democrats call this law unconstitutional. Do you think it is contradictory to ask to reduce police funding, as the Dems did so vocally during the BLM protests?
Sputnik: Can the police afford major budget cuts such as those proposed by Democrats? How will substantially decreasing funding affect the work of law enforcement?
Dr. David Thomas: Over the years, the law enforcement power in this country has already been working at a deficit. And so they've been pushed out a bit to do more with less and to kind of do these budget cuts, that I think would paralyze some agencies. Not only that, you have to look at the ideas - that they want quality police and they want well-trained police - is usually the first thing to go. And it has been, in my experience for the last 40 years, is that when the budget gets cut, first thing to go is quality training. So the very thing that they want - they're hurting by cutting the budget.
Sputnik: How do budget cuts affect the quality of training?
Dr. David Thomas: Well, I mean, there's no training. Literally the first thing to go, one of the things that will go out the door is, there's no training. We can't afford to train. We can't afford to send you to classes. We can't afford to do in-service training because sometimes we have to cover shifts with overtime. So that means there's no budget. So there will be no training. Unless the state, like Florida, mandates 40 hours of mandatory training every four years. So what you will probably see is mandatory minimums. And in those states where those places where they don't have that type of thing, just won't do any training, because there's no budget.
Sputnik: What is your stance on the constant calls to reduce police funding which are circulating in the media? Do you think such moves are necessary given the ongoing social tension in the US?
Dr. David Thomas: I think that law enforcement needs to kind of rethink the way it does its business. Not necessarily make the budget cuts. But I think we really need to sit down and reevaluate what law enforcement's role is. In this country, over the years, everything has been kind of dumped on policing and they've accepted those roles. Especially, let's say, like dealing with mental health issues. That dates back to the late 70s and early 80s, when this country closed down all of its mental health institutions and released those people onto the street and, who became the person or the guardian for the mental health issues? Law enforcement. And that has been maintained for years. Law enforcement is not doing such a good job now. So we need to rethink and retool. There is a program in Eugene, Oregon, called CAHOOTS. And that program is pretty good because they are dispatched right out of police dispatch, which means these calls are screened. They have a mental health person, a paramedic. And they go to those calls for service. They help the homeless, the people who are mentally ill. And I think less than five percent of those calls have required police intervention. Here where I live, in Gainesville, they have a police car, and that car has one officer who has a master's in forensic psychology. And then they have a mental health clinician from the local clinic that rides with her four days a week, 40 hours a week. And they respond to all the mental health counseling service on her shift. And that program has been very successful and it reduces that type of interaction and violence. When I say rethink, they really have to rethink.
Sputnik: You have suggested that this society cannot function without police. How do you think police funding can be reduced without affecting the public safety?
Dr. David Thomas: The argument, they found this out in Minneapolis, people are screaming about police: "we don't want less police, fund the police!". It's interesting that the people who live closest to where the violence occurs, where they have shootings and robberies and that stuff occurs - they want police! Because they understand that it is a central part of their safety. When I talk about rethinking, we have to rethink policing. It needs to be reimagined. Those two things have to work together because a society without police is lost and police who are not in touch with their citizens is like an army that doesn't have a mission.
Sputnik: What do you think will happen with police funding during the Biden administration?
Dr. David Thomas: Oh, boy, that's an interesting question. I think if they do the plan right, if they do this right, if they do criminal justice reform correctly, then I think that policing will change. Culture has to change. That could be the impetus for change. The other side of that is when our federal government is involved in anything, the question always has to be asked: who is the gatekeeper? Under President Obama, in this country, we had consent decrees, meaning that if a city or a police department was out of line, then what could happen is that the federal government or Department of Justice could sue the agency and the jurisdiction. That meant that they would evaluate them and they would say, you need this type of training, you need to change these policies. And the federal government will come in basically and take over your department and make you correct those errors. Under the Trump administration, Jeff Sessions, - there's a memo that I've read, where he said we're no longer going to local law enforcement, no longer our problem, local governments can handle themselves. Well, nobody's watching police.