Time for change

Chris Cunneen

The Black Lives Matter movement galvanised protest movements against police and state violence around the globe. A common theme in many protests was the demand to ‘Defund the Police’. Increasing attention to the idea of defunding or divesting from police forces is gaining in mainstream politics and media. We need to seriously consider what is required to fundamentally change the way policing operates. The option of divestment opens up this discussion. Defund the Police is not another book about police reform. It is an engagement in the contemporary debate on the politics and possibilities of police abolition. To date, the majority of popular and academic literature in policing studies, law reform, and criminology has been preoccupied with conventional ideas related to top-down police reform. These reforms include efforts, for example, to recruit diverse and inclusive police officers, to implement cultural-awareness training, to introduce technical solutions like the use of body cameras, to place limitations on the use of force, and to introduce police-led programs aimed at cultivating localised or community policing. We have had decades of these types of reforms, and part of the explosion of protest internationally is driven by the profound sense of frustration at the inability of police to reform themselves. This chaper outlines the nature of the international protests and argues that, although local conditions generated what became an international movement for change, there were common themes among the protesters across different countries. The chapter outlines in brief the demands of the Black Lives Matter movement and how in the US there were various responses from local, city, and state governments. The link between Defunding the Police and the broader challenges to mass incarceration and the carceral state is also discussed.

Subjects and Keywords

1: Time for change