What has changed in the last year, from coast to coast, in big cities and small, is that the movement to reduce the role, power, and resources of police is steadily gaining ground and building power. A report from the Interrupting Criminalization Project documented that in 2020 alone, Black-led organizations and Black activists successfully advocated for $840 million to be reinvested from police departments, and secured investments of at least $160 million in their communities, including removing armed police from schools in more than 25 cities (and counting), saving an additional $34 million for investment in meeting student and community needs.

Wins we’ve seen:

• Brooklyn Center passing the Daunte Wright and Kobe Dimock-Heisler Community Safety and Violence Prevention Resolution, which will remove police from responses in the community so they don’t have the chance to harm or kill community members;
• Cannabis decriminalization wins across the U.S.;
• Getting police out of schools in Colorado, Wisconsin, Oregon, and many more states across the country;
• 2020 divestment from police and reinvestment in communities in Los Angeles, New York City, Austin, Minneapolis;
• Successful Law Enforcement Bill of Rights repeal — intended to protect law enforcement from investigation and prosecution arising from conduct — and use of force legislation passed in Maryland;
• Qualified immunity wins in Colorado, New Mexico, and New York City.

Despite these wins, police still kill roughly three people a day, and 58 percent of police killings this year began when officers responded to an incident such as a traffic stop or a mental health need. Black people are still three times more likely to be killed by police than white people, and 1.3 times more likely to be unarmed when they are.

In short, what has not changed since George Floyd’s murder is that communities of color continue to be patrolled by massively funded — state and local governments spend roughly $115 billion per year — and heavily armed police forces that disproportionately stop, arrest, jail, abuse, traumatize, and kill people of color. It is the continuation of a generations-old status quo of racial injustice, while alternatives that reduce harm and violence — medical and mental health care, schools, housing, employment, social services, and more — remain woefully underfunded.

Work we’re doing:

• Municipal ballot initiatives following the Brooklyn Center Model;
• Support for Portland and Denver’s mental health crisis response programs;
• Creative new litigation strategies to limit police responses and strengthen and expand non-police responses;
• Defeating anti-defund legislation in Indiana and Los Angeles that would lock in police budgets forever;
• Advocating for the end of the federal 1033 program, which equips police with military equipment;
• Civil asset forfeiture litigation and reforms;
• Fines and fees campaigns and lawsuits in Tennessee, Colorado, and elsewhere;
• Litigation targeting municipalities that contract with Lexipol and its lax use of force policies;
• Washington State legislative campaign to limit police collective bargaining agreement provisions that pose major obstacles to accountability;
• Louisville, Kentucky collective bargaining agreement campaign
• Targeting racist conspiracies between police officers and third parties such as right-wing militia groups and racist police unions
• Supreme Court amicus work to abolish qualified immunity