The death of George Floyd on May 25, 2020 under the knee of a Minneapolis police officer forced America again to confront the connection between racism and law enforcement. It also compelled the City of Minneapolis to act. Merely a few days later on June 7, 2020 a majority of Minneapolis City Council members called for a defunding of police, setting off a similar set of movements nationally. After efforts to place an initiative on the 2020 ballot to eliminate the police failed, and the City Charter Commission rejected the idea, on December 10, 2020 the Minneapolis City Council voted to divert $8 million from the police budget to fund alternative programs. The Mayor subsequently approved the budget cuts. In taking this action, the City of Minneapolis took its first steps to defunding or reimagining policing.
The movement to defund police has attracted mixed if not negative reviews nationally. Donald Trump ran against the “defund the police” mantra, and there is evidence that his messaging was successful in blunting Democratic Party gains nationwide in the 2020 elections. This suggests that the defunding movement or messaging, whatever its merits, so far has not resonated politically with the American public and its future as a reform tactic or strategy is questionable. Most Americans want police accountability and reform, but not necessarily its abolition. It is possible that the progressive activists who support the defund police movement are political outliers who do not represent where the consensus of American public opinion is located. The opportunity for police reform that the death of George Floyd created may already be closing, and we may therefore be in a Post-George Floyd policy location where the chance for serious change has already stalled.
The reality is that police are not going to entirely disappear from America anytime soon. Nonetheless, the question remains, if one is still interested in the idea of reforming or changing police behavior, especially when it comes to addressing its racial impact, what should such reform look like? Offering a preliminary path for reform, or at least outlining the questions that need to be asked, is the subject of this Article.
This Article does not propose an answer to what a reformed institution of policing looks like in America. Instead, it is a methodological exploration of the types of questions that need to be asked and addressed if any type of reforms are to occur. The purpose of this Article then is to set a path of questions and issues that need to be addressed by reformers and activists if they wish to alter the way police operate as an institution in the United States.