About | HeinOnline Law Journal Library | HeinOnline Law Journal Library | HeinOnline
LOG IN
LOG IN

72 Fla. L. Rev. 277 (2020)
Police Funding

handle is hein.journals/uflr72 and id is 276 raw text is: POLICE FUNDING Stephen Rushin & Roger Michalski* Abstract A number of civil rights activists have called for the defunding or abolition of American police departments. These activists claim that the United States overinvests in police, leaving fewer scarce resources to support other government services. Activists also claim that overinvestment in policing contributes to higher rates of police misconduct and unnecessary criminalization, particularly in communities of color. This Article considers these calls for the defunding of police. It ultimately cautions against widespread defunding of police and offers an alternative proposal. Part I brings together multiple national databases on local government expenditures to evaluate empirically how states and municipalities fund policing. It shows that local police funding varies remarkably across jurisdictions. Much of this variation exists because police departments derive funding primarily from local sales and property taxes. Because of this funding mechanism, economically disadvantaged communities most in need of public-safety services can often least afford them. Part II argues that the defunding of police departments on a wide scale may have significant and unintended consequences. This Article argues that defunding could increase crime rates, hamper efforts to control officer misconduct, and reduce officer safety. Faced with smaller budgets, defunded agencies may also seek additional revenue through potentially harmful means like excessive ticketing and civil asset forfeitures. Defunding could push the delivery of public-safety services to the private sector. And defunded agencies may ultimately lower officer salaries, thereby limiting recruitment and retention of qualified personnel. Given these drawbacks, this Article remains skeptical that defunding will improve policing in many jurisdictions. Instead, this Article argues that states should fundamentally reimagine how they fund the police. States should view policing as a public good that ought to be equitably distributed across the population according to need. Just as some state legislatures have passed revenue-sharing initiatives designed to equalize the availability of public goods such as education, so too should states act to equalize the funding of local police departments according to need. This would ensure that all localities have minimally sufficient resources * Stephen Rushin is an Associate Professor of Law at Loyola University Chicago School of Law. Roger Michalski is an Associate Professor of Law at the University of Oklahoma College of Law. We thank our colleagues who provided advice and comments throughout the development of this Article. We also thank the editorial staff at the Florida Law Review. 277

What Is HeinOnline?

HeinOnline is a subscription-based resource containing thousands of academic and legal journals from inception; complete coverage of government documents such as U.S. Statutes at Large, U.S. Code, Federal Register, Code of Federal Regulations, U.S. Reports, and much more. Documents are image-based, fully searchable PDFs with the authority of print combined with the accessibility of a user-friendly and powerful database. For more information, request a quote or trial for your organization below.



Short-term subscription options include 24 hours, 48 hours, or 1 week to HeinOnline.

Purchase Access

Contact us for annual subscription options:

Contact Us

Already a HeinOnline Subscriber?

Log In

profiles profiles most