What would defunding police in Stanislaus County do? Activists, chiefs answer
As some cities across the nation consider what defunding the police means in response to the May 25 death of George Floyd, local civil rights and community activists are sharing their views on what that reform could do in Stanislaus County.
The Bee spoke with leaders of the NAACP, the Latino Community Roundtable, Faith in the Valley and El Concilio as well as the police chiefs for the county’s two biggest cities, Modesto and Turlock.
No one wants to abolish police departments, but these leaders want some of the money spent on police redirected to what they believe are pressing social needs. That includes more youth and mentoring programs, drug and alcohol treatment, affordable housing, job training and mental health services.
And they say it means sending other professionals, such as social workers, to respond to nonemergencies, such as calls involving homeless people or arguments among family members.
“It’s not something that we would expect to happen overnight,” said Jose R. Rodriguez, president and CEO of El Concilio, a nonprofit that serves San Joaquin Valley Latinos. “But I think it’s time that we start looking at some of those alternatives, rather than just continuing to throw money at law enforcement.”
Latino Community Roundtable board President Aaron Anguiano said cities spend too much on their police departments, and some of that funding would be better spent on investing in their underserved communities.
“What can we do in terms of social work, counseling, mental health issues, drugs, focusing on prevention,” said Anguiano on Wednesday, adding these were his views because his board had not yet meet to discuss this issue. “And the amount (from the police budgets) should not be a token amount, but something substantial.”
How could budget changes affect Modesto, Turlock police?
Police departments make up a big portion of cities’ budgets. For instance, Modesto’s current $138 million general fund budget allocates $69.5 million to the Police Department. Police officers are expensive in California because of rising pension costs, the difficulty in finding and keeping people qualified to do the job, and competition among cities for officers.
While spending less on law enforcement would mean fewer officers, these community leaders say that will allow the police to focus on its primary mission of responding to serious and violent crime and not put officers in the position of dealing with social issues — such as homelessness and mental illness — that they are not equipped to handle.
Modesto Police Chief Galen Carroll said he agrees his officers respond to too many calls that would be better handled by social workers and other professionals, such as parents who call the police because their kids won’t go to school, disputes between neighbors and complaints about homeless people sleeping in the alley.
Law enforcement agencies do partner with social workers on issues related to drugs, mental health and homelessness however, said Turlock Police Chief Nino Amirfar.
“They can’t do it without law enforcement because these individuals do become violent,” Amirfar said. “So you can’t separate it.”
Turlock Police Department officers handle noncriminal issues at least half of the time, he said, adding that calls regarding homelessness and mental health have increased tenfold in his about 30 years with the agency.
But both chiefs said they do not support diverting money from their departments to pay for social workers and other professionals to handle these calls. Carroll said his department is stretched thin and faces more budget cuts because of the coronavirus pandemic. Modesto, like cities across the state, has seen revenues nosedive because of the stay-at-home order and other restrictions brought on to stop the virus but also have devastated the economy.
For the Turlock Police Department, further budget cuts may force layoffs, Amirfar said. The city eliminated seven department positions last year in an effort to curb spending, so he said the department has already reduced its services from proactive to reactive. The Turlock City Council has yet to finalize the budget for fiscal year 2020-21, but drafts from the latest workshop show police taking up about half of the general fund expenditures, at $22.6 million of $40.4 million.
Although continuing crisis intervention and de-escalation training is among his priorities, Amirfar said training funds are often the first items municipalities cut from police budgets. Efforts to divert police funding to other social programs may eliminate the training some activists are calling for, Amirfar said.
Carroll added real reform involves California revamping how it funds its cities to ensure all of them are funded fairly so they can provided needed services, instead of dividing cities into the “haves and have nots,” with Modesto among the cities not getting its fair share. “If we really want to fix all of this,” he said, “.... the state needs to overhaul how local governments are funded.”
How do community expectations affect funding possibilities?
Carroll and Amirfar said there also is a deeply ingrained community expectation that when someone calls the police, an officer will show up. Modesto officers respond to about 180,000 calls for service annually, Carroll said, so that mindset would have to change if other professionals handled some of these calls.
“Until our society decides that these other priorities have to be handled with the specialists that are trained for that, law enforcement is going to be having to respond,” Amirfar said. “We’re going to have to train our staff better to do better. But you’re asking a lot from a human being to handle all of those things every day.”
Modesto Mayor Ted Brandvold echoed those comments, saying Modesto residents expect a police officer to show up when they call for help.
“From what I see,” he said, “that’s what our citizens want and what our citizens expect. I’m not for taking money from the police. I’m not for reducing the number of police for that (providing funding for alternatives to policing.)“
To improve community oriented policing, Councilman Andrew Nosrati said the Turlock Police Department needs more funding so it can bolster outreach programs. The Community Priorities Advisory Committee has also recommended increasing Turlock’s police budget, including funds for hiring additional police officers, purchasing new equipment and increasing the overtime budget.
While large cities might have the flexibility to divert funds from bloated police budgets, Nosrati said cities of Turlock’s size struggle to maintain staffing levels.
“What works in Los Angeles is not going to be the same thing that works in Turlock,” Nosrati said of his city of about 75,000 residents. “It’s very important that everyone in our community that has feelings about this comes in with the desire to understand first, then work together. We need stronger community involvement to get us to where we need to go.”
What other reforms are organizers seeking?
Local activists are also requesting better relations between the police and the Latino, Black and other minority communities they serve. Local law enforcement should invest in more implicit bias training, said Latricia Beasley-Day, a community organizer with the Stanislaus chapter of Faith in the Valley, a nonprofit supporting underserved residents.
“They are sworn to serve and protect,” Beasley-Day said. “That’s what we’re looking for: the protection. The Black community should not fear the police in the fashion that they do.”
Modesto-Stanislaus NAACP branch President Wendy Byrd called for an independent citizens review board to investigate complaints made against police officers and sheriff’s deputies instead of having law enforcement agencies investigate their own. She said a citizens review board would create more trust in the community.
Byrd said there should be a restorative justice program as an alternative to sending low-level, nonviolent offenders to jail or prison. She said such a program keeps offenders in the community where they can get support and help with the issues that caused them to get in trouble. But these offenders also have to make amends and restitution to their victims.
Byrd said she understands local governments are dealing with budget shortfalls because of the pandemic but said that is no reason not to pursue reforms.
“It’s not a matter of not having money,” she said, “but a matter of, ‘What are your priorities?’ ”
This story was originally published June 19, 2020 at 10:42 AM.
