Defund the Police and Human Trafficking
Ten8–9/18/2020
The recent reports of law enforcement actions against human trafficking are great news. I am sure that this is relatively routine, and the media just picked up on it for some reason. Regardless, as of late;
39 kids and 9 arrests in Operation Not Forgotten
25 kids in Operation Safety Net
8 kids in Operation Homecoming
Over 8k human trafficking arrests in the first 3 years of the Trump administration from Feds.
Apparently, the U.S. Marshalls recover over a thousand kids every year. I cannot imagine how great this would feel. The type of policing I did was predominantly enforcement. This is something I wish I would have had the opportunity to work on. Though I may not be the proper personality for that type of detective work. I believe I would be likely to get an excessive force complaint pretty quickly. Chief Kirby, expressed his version of that feeling. The Chief of the Missing Child Unit said, “It’s hard to put into words what we feel when we rescue a missing child, but I can tell you that this operation has impacted every single one of us out here.”
These stories are prominent examples of why defunding the police and police abolishment are ideological goals that will never come to fruition. In the most liberal presentation of my work, abolishment is the goal, but it is unlikely to ever be accomplished. In reality, we desperately need local law enforcement to respond to violence, keep social order, and perform emergency services. Federal law enforcement has taken the lead on human trafficking cases. Without the overarching jurisdiction of federal agencies, interstate and jurisdiction crossing crime would be handled, well,… just , how?
Along with other related federal programs, Amber alerts, Silver alerts, trafficking hotlines, terrorism (domestic and international), organized crime, multi-jurisdictional crimes, and on and on and on.
Defund the police is a silly idea. You can ask for more alternatives to armed intervention, but you cannot possibly think you can get a better product without investing in it. Especially by merely demanding it. Armed officers could be on-site and prepared to use force, but other workers engage. You can even argue that the non-armed workers should have to power to direct the officer to use or not use force, to stay back, or engage and secure the scene first. Everything I know tells me that these non-armed workers are going to have more fear than the current officers and they would end up requesting more force on average than the current officers do.
It is my academic work to view policing through the lens of business management philosophy. I am all about lean and efficient police management. The data I have seen shows that we could have a lot fewer armed officers, but it requires an intense investment in the armed officers we keep. Could we cut the number of armed police in half? Yes, if you take at least half of the savings and investment in the remaining officers. We could cut most urban and suburban areas by 2/3rds by doubling our investment in the 1/3 of the force remaining. The research suggests that these efforts would create a safer, and I would argue a more moral form of policing.
The thing is, overall, this is all likely to cost more money. We would then need to train and invest in all of the other resources and human capital required to do the things the armed officer typically does now. Violence is not rational; the death penalty does not decrease homicides; individuals going through some biological malfunctions are going to be violent. Asking underpaid and overworked social workers to be martyrs to our “feels” is not going to work out well, just like with attitudes towards the police. We do not want to go too far in the praising of first responders, but treating them poorly inevitably hurts everyone. Each time a current first responder or potential first responder feels the pain of having their sacrifices dehumanized, the lower and lower quality of our public servants. A self-fulfilling prophecy if there ever was one.
Ten8 is a more personal and journal-style series of articles by Dr. Michael Wood Jr. that will center around police management, criminology, and policing. The articles will not be the typical citation-driven essay style of Dr. Wood. For those articles, please see Dr. Wood’s page, published books, especially The Business of Policing: Volume I: Crime and Punishments in the 21st Century, or published literature highlighted by The Business of Policing Volume II: Managing Ethical Police Conduct. Here, Dr. Wood will post frequent thought streams on his personal philosophies.
