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Articles on Defund the police

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Police officers are seen in front of Parliament Hill in Ottawa in September 2023 at the conservative ‘1MillionMarch4Children’ protest. THE CANADIAN PRESS/ Patrick Doyle

Canadian cities continue to over-invest in policing

Despite public calls to defund the police in 2020, the budgets of Canadian police forces have continued to rise.
Research collaboration between police forces and academics could go a long way to ensuring federal legislation aimed at fighting coercive control in intimate relationships is effective. (Shutterstock)

Police-academic partnerships could help tackle the crime of coercive control

Police-academic partnerships are key to the success of evidence-based policing. Growing support for coercive control legislation makes research collaboration all the more urgent.
A Vancouver police cruiser is seen on city streets. The Vancouver Police Department is under fire for the suicide of a police officer and other alleged misconduct that highlight the dangers of the ‘blue wall of silence.’ THE CANADIAN PRESS/Darryl Dyck

Behind the blue wall: The toxic culture that left a Vancouver police officer dead

Chan had been subjected to a pattern of abuse by senior members of the Vancouver police force starting when she was being recruited to the department.
A woman carries an umbrella outside a protest to defund the police in front of Toronto Police Service headquarters in July 2020. Police budgets have increased, not decreased, since then. THE CANADIAN PRESS/Nathan Denette

Two years after the defund the police movement, police budgets increase across Canada

New research shows police budgets have continued to increase in all major Canadian cities in the aftermath of the defund the police movement.
Chief James Ramer of the Toronto Police Service speaks during a news conference releasing race-based data at police headquarters in Toronto. THE CANADIAN PRESS/ Tijana Martin

Strip searches are ineffective, unnecessary and target racialized Canadians

Strip searching is a police practice that evokes racial and sexual trauma, and it’s also ineffective. It’s finally time to talk about ending this oppressive police practice.
A person holds a sign calling for to defund the police during an October 2020 protest in Ottawa after a police constable was acquitted of manslaughter in the 2016 death of a Black man, Abdirahman Abdi. THE CANADIAN PRESS/Justin Tang

Thin-skinned blue line: Police fight against defunding, showing their true colours

Has the defund the police movement had an impact in Canada? It depends on how you define success.
A photo from a demonstration calling for police accountability and an end to police brutality in Vancouver, in May 2020. THE CANADIAN PRESS/Darryl Dyck

Public police are a greedy institution

The greedy tendencies of police departments help illustrate why public police funding is a major problem today in Canada and the United States.
Police push back protesters during a demonstration in Montréal calling for justice for victims of police brutality. THE CANADIAN PRESS/Graham Hughes

Defunding the police is a move towards community safety

The large budgets allotted for urban policing must be reconsidered so that communities can explore safer alternatives.
Rethinking what we mean by police sustainability, how we measure it and how we hold the police accountable for outcomes, may create the opening for a more viable path to reform. (Shutterstock)

Rethinking police reform: From defunding to promoting sustainability

The continued reliance on outdated indicators of police performance reinforce conventional ideas of police sustainability rather than align with the concerns of “defund the police” advocates.
Police in riot gear line up against protesters during clashes in Kenosha, Wis., in August 2020 following the police shooting of Jacob Blake, a Black man, two days earlier. (AP Photo/David Goldman)

Defund the police? Instead, end toxic masculinity and ‘warrior cops’

We need to clarify the role of the police, to promote a more justice-oriented style of police leadership and to put in place long-term mechanisms of accountability to support and sustain change.
Once domestic violence victims call police, they sometimes regret they did and feel retraumatized by investigators. (Pixabay)

Why domestic violence victims often feel retraumatized by police

On Canada’s National Day of Remembrance and Action on Violence Against Women, it’s time to challenge the revictimization of victims of domestic violence by aggressive police action.
Police in riot gear stand in a line against protesters next to a message spay painted on the Kenosha County Courthouse in August 2020 after the police shooting of unarmed Black man Jacob Blake. (AP Photo/David Goldman)

Force is no substitute for social justice, so let’s dismantle the police

Other agencies or officials can do much of what police do now. So let’s disband police forces and replace them with local community organizations.
Police involvement is missing persons cases is often necessary. (Eric Ward/Unsplash)

What defunding the police could mean for missing persons

In the absence of serious efforts by mental health centres, shelters and youth group homes to prevent people from running away from their facilities in the first place, police involvement is necessary.
Protesters in front of Boston Police Headquarters during a United Against Racist Police Terror Rally on June 7, 2020. Matthew J. Lee/The Boston Globe via Getty Images

Police unions are one of the biggest obstacles to transforming policing

Across the United States, police are shielded from both public and departmental accountability by multiple layers of contractual and legislative protections.

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