\u201cDepartments are primarily local,\u201d he continued. \u201cThey move closely around local and cultural values … which makes it difficult\u00a0<\/span>at a national level to really appreciate what\u2019s going on.\u201d<\/span><\/p>\n In Minneapolis, the battle between city leaders and community members on defunding the police department has become a microcosm of the national debate on police reform. After Floyd\u2019s death, the Minneapolis City Council pledged to dismantle the police department but later walked back that vow.<\/p>\n Minneapolis Mayor Jacob Frey has pushed back against efforts to dismantle or significantly defund the city\u2019s police force. The city did vote in December to redirect $8 million of the $179 million police budget to expand other community services, including violence prevention and mental health resources. However, under pressure from Frey, the city did not move to cut police staffing.<\/p>\n Several other major cities have defunded or are in the process of defunding their police departments, including Atlanta, Baltimore, New York City and Philadelphia. But the alarming rise in violent crime over the last year, coupled with plunging police recruitment rates, has made some cities reevaluate their efforts.<\/p>\n In response to the massive racial justice protests last summer, Los Angeles Mayor Eric Garcetti authorized a $150 million cut to the city\u2019s police funding \u2015 a roughly 8% reduction in the total police budget. But earlier this month, as the murder rate in Los Angeles surged, the city moved to effectively restore that funding.<\/p>\n Ithaca, New York, has drawn national attention for its ambitious plan for police reform. The city adopted a resolution in April that replaces the Ithaca Police Department with a Department of Public Safety, which includes an unarmed unit of \u201ccommunity solution workers.\u201d The proposal reflects calls from activists and experts nationwide who say armed police officers shouldn\u2019t be responding to low-level offenses, such as traffic stops, or mental health crises.<\/p>\n In April, Maryland became the first state to repeal its police bill of rights, which gave special protections to police officers because of the nature of their jobs. The legislation also added more civilian oversight to officer misconduct cases.<\/p>\n Some states \u2015 including Connecticut, Minnesota and Vermont \u2015 have adopted \u201cduty to intervene\u201d laws in the wake Floyd\u2019s death. These statutory provisions require an officer to intervene if they observe another officer using excessive force or violating a person\u2019s constitutional rights.<\/p>\n Ganesha Martin, the former director of the Baltimore Mayor\u2019s Office of Criminal Justice, told HuffPost that police departments must do more to protect officers who intervene in those situations.<\/p>\n \u201cAll we talk about is getting rid of bad cops \u2026 but nobody is talking about how do we protect, uplift and support the good cops and make an environment where they feel comfortable doing the right thing?\u201d she said.\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n Martin also highlighted the critical need for updated technology in police departments nationwide.<\/p>\n \u201cWhat nobody is talking about is that many of our police departments still have \u201970s, \u201980s technology,\u201d she said. \u201cIt\u2019s very hard to pull out basic data for them to report out and be transparent for the community.\u201d<\/span><\/p>\n Without tech upgrades, Martin warned, some police departments will undoubtedly fail to file accurate reports using a potential national registry created by the federal government, serving only to further erode trust in those institutions.<\/p>\n Christen Smith,\u00a0an associate professor of anthropology and African and African diaspora studies at the University of Texas at Austin,\u00a0cautioned that legislation and policy changes within departments don\u2019t always lead to the desired impact in practice. For instance, chokeholds were already banned by the New York Police Department when then-officer Daniel Pantaleo used one on Eric Garner during a fatal arrest attempt in 2014.<\/p>\n Martin suggested there should be a national set of standards crafted in concert with police officers and criminal justice activists that serve as a north star for departments across the country. But Tracie Keesee,\u00a0co-founder and senior vice president of the Center for Policing Equity, said such standards may fail to accomplish much of anything.<\/p>\n \u201cThere needs to be something that governs that sort of generalized area of policing, which is fine,\u201d she told HuffPost. \u201cBut if [police departments] get to change them … then what\u2019s the point?\u201d<\/span><\/p>\n Any set of national standards should be evidence-based and replicable, if possible, Keesee said.\u00a0<\/p>\n \u201cThere\u2019s evidence out there that certain things work,\u201d such as ending police responses to public health situations, she said.<\/p>\n \u201cThe No. 1 thing that still has yet to be answered is, what is the role of police? What is their job? What is their charge?\u201d Keesee added. \u201cIt\u2019s really this moment where it will look different in local jurisdictions.\u201d<\/span><\/p>\n Ultimately, experts said it remains to be seen which cities and states will serve as models for police reform.<\/p>\n As federal police reform languishes in Congress and cities and local police departments grapple with the best path forward, some experts have pointed to the shift in the way most Americans understand police violence and racial injustice as a marker of progress.<\/p>\n \u2033<\/span>What I have found inspiring is the work that organizers have been able to do to shift the way that we talk about this,\u201d Smith said. \u201cEven a couple years ago, saying \u2018white supremacy\u2019 as opposed to \u2018racism\u2019 was something that people cringed at. And I think some people still do, but there\u2019s a much wider understanding of the term and what its implications are now.\u201d<\/span><\/p>\n \u201cThat\u2019s the work of organizers and folks on the ground trying to make change,\u201d she continued. \u201c<\/span>There has to be this constant engagement in dialogue and conversations in order to do that work.\u201d<\/span><\/p>\n Mckesson, however, dismissed the significance of such a cultural shift.<\/p>\n \u201cPolice killed more people in 2020 than every single year of data we have, except for 2018,\u201d he said. \u201cYes, the conversation is, I guess, different, and there are more people who are talking about this. Just the conversation alone has not translated into less people killed.\u201d<\/p>\n It\u2019s \u201ctoo early\u201d to judge how far police reform has come since Floyd\u2019s death, Mckesson said, noting that some state legislatures are still working through proposals.<\/p>\n What\u2019s more, Smith said it\u2019s going to take more than a year to tackle the systemic issues entrenched in policing.<\/p>\n \u201cWe live in a very complex society and it\u2019s conservative and that has, for all of its existence, neglected a significant portion of its population,\u201d she said. \u201cSo I\u2019m not surprised that in one year, you don\u2019t see more than what you\u2019ve seen.\u201d<\/span><\/p>\n \u201cI think we\u2019re going in a good direction,\u201d she added. \u201d<\/span>But we also need to be sober about what it means to undo almost 400 years, or 300 years, of patterns of injustice. You\u2019re not going to do it in a year.\u201d<\/span><\/p>\n Some, like Payne and Martin, question how there can ever be any meaningful reform without addressing the pervasive systems of oppression that create inequities for people of color in health care, education and many other areas.<\/p>\n![](\"https:\/\/img.huffingtonpost.com\/asset\/60ad12091e00000a931028b1.jpeg?ops=scalefit_720_noupscale\")
<\/p>\nA Shift In Cultural Awareness<\/h3>\n