A Bridge Not Too Far: Police Leaders' Views on the Defund Police Movement

• In Event: Navigating the Covid-19 Pandemic and Calls for Reform: Police Perceptions and Responses

Abstract

Following the murder of George Floyd in 2020 by a Minneapolis police officer, calls to defund the police have shaped narratives surrounding police reform in Canada. We conducted 12 (to date) in-depth interviews with police Chiefs and leaders in large urban, small rural, and Indigenous communities across the country to gain insight into their perceptions of the Defund movement. Our findings show regional differences in how police leaders make sense of calls to defund, mediated by the range of challenges their organizations face in responding to a variety of social problems (e.g. mental health), as well as the availability of resources in their respective areas. We use three categories – absorb, refract, and mirror – to capture key distinctions in how leaders of large urban, small rural, and indigenous police services engage with reforms associated with the movement. We argue the gap between proponents’ and police leaders’ perceptions of ‘defunding’ is not so wide, with police leaders acknowledging their limitations in responding to many social problems, underscoring a need for more involvement of alternative community services.

Authors

• Holly Campeau, University of Waterloo

• Danielle E. Thompson, University of Waterloo