As protests calling for racial justice have taken the world by storm, the “Defund the Police” movement has become a rallying cry. The murder of George Floyd acted as a pivotal point in society, with Minneapolis council members pledging to “dismantle the troubled local police department” (Levin, 2020). Subsequently, defunding the police has been misinterpreted.
Its concept is to redistribute funding from the police department towards methods of crime prevention. Statistics show that 9/10 police calls are for non-violent encounters (Ray, 2020). Consequently, Phillip McHarris argues that removing the police as first responders for non-criminal calls and redirecting funds into housing, mental health support, and social services can improve this issue.
Similar to the BLM protests in America, there’s been anger over Australian Indigenous deaths in custody, provoking academics inquiring:
"Is 'Defund the Police' relevant in Australia?"
Alison Whittaker contends that Defund the Police isn’t relevant to Australia. She said that the movement makes more sense in the US where “police forces are much more locally controlled and have much more discreet budgets.”(Stansfield, 2021) Juxtaposed to Australia where police forces are organised by the Federal, State and Territory governments and local councils aren’t required to make funding decisions.
Although Australian police forces are different to America’s, the call to defund the police releases questions about the police’s policies. According to the Institute of Public Affairs, Australia has one of the world’s highest police expenditure of $19 Billion. Chris di Pasquale confronts Australia’s policing system, suggesting that the amount spent on the police department could allow students to go to University for free, provide every citizen legal aid and fully fund national mental health services. (Pasquale, 2020)
This wide discussion regarding whether Defund the Police is relevant to the context of Australia provokes a lot of controversy within Australia’s society. Whether it isn’t applicable because of the locally centralised budgets, or if it is pertinent because of the high police expenditure, the decision to defund Australia’s police is dependent on you. What changes can YOU make?
