What A World Without, Or With Different, Police Looks Like

Nationwide protests against police brutality and systemic racism are now in their third week. Activists’ call to defund the police have now become mainstream, a concept that was foreign to many Americans only a month ago.

“We’ve seen just about every social problems handed over to police to solve. And police don’t have the tools to manage those issues.” — Alex Vitale, author

Though the phrase “defund the police” is now part of the American lexicon, many people are still unsure about what a world with less or no, or different police would look like.

Listen: Rethinking the role of police in America. 

Guest

Alex Vitale is a Professor of Sociology and the Coordinator of the Policing and Social Justice Project at Brooklyn College. He also authored the new book, “The End of Policing.”

On the growing calls to defund the police, Vitale says, “There’s no scenario where there’s some magic switch and tomorrow — poof — there’s no police. Policing exists. The question is how to we start unwinding this gross over-reliance on policing.”

That over-reliance, Vitale says, includes police dealing with social problems that could be solved by mental health professionals or through investment in community health infrastructure. “Especially over the 40 or 50 years, we’ve seen just about every social problems handed over to police to solve. And police don’t have the tools to manage those issues,” says Vitale. 

According to Vitale, the current law enforcement crisis in the United States is a longtime coming and solutions should be oriented around shifting political priorities rather than incremental police reform. “My book is not really a book about police accountability. It’s a book about political accountability, because these are political decisions,” says Vitale.