The Shorthorn (UTA)
By The Shorthorn Editorial Board
Sep 14, 2022

In a speech last month, President Joe Biden reaffirmed his support for increasing police funding. The support has puzzled some, as tensions between residents and police remain in many communities since the death of George Floyd, a 46-year-old Black man, in May 2020. 

Police and community relations have been at the forefront of the nation’s attention since then-Minneapolis police officer Derek Chauvin killed Floyd. 

While President Biden’s attention on the issue of policing is appreciated, The Shorthorn Editorial Board believes that increasing funding by itself, with no stipulations, will not help mend the bond between local communities and police departments. If police departments receive more funding, it should go toward efforts to repair the relationship between police departments and local communities.

Many ideas have been discussed as to how to improve people’s relationships with police, such as defunding police departments, strategically allocating funding, and increasing funding and training. One area where police funding could be used is the collaboration between police and social workers.

In 1989, Eugene, Oregon, debuted a program called CAHOOTS, which stands for Crisis Assistance Helping Out On The Streets. A local clinic provides non-police emergency response teams to support the city’s police department. 

Similar models have since been introduced in other cities, such as Oakland, California, where it’s called Mobile Assistance Community Responders of Oakland, and Stockholm, Sweden, known as Psychiatric Acute Mobility. 

In 2004, a study from the U.S. Department of Justice about the collaboration between the Richmond Department of Social Services and the Richmond Police Department, which responded to domestic violence cases, found that those receiving intervention by both police and social workers were more likely to praise their experience with police.  

The collaboration may have helped domestic violence victims avoid entering similar situations in the future, according to the study.

“Together, these findings suggest the possibility that victims served by Second Responders and police have an increased chance of avoiding future incidents of domestic violence,” the study states. 

This shows that allocating funding to programs promoting collaboration between police and social workers may help local communities feel safer around police and decrease the chance of finding themselves in unsafe situations.

Police funding could also be allocated to measures that increase positive community engagement with police.

The Arlington Police Department did something similar in May when it launched the One Congregation, One Precinct program, which aims to increase community engagement with police officers through religious congregations. It’s the first city in Texas to adopt the program, according to NBC DFW.

OneCOP attempts to facilitate positive community interactions with the police with quarterly activities, holding space for dialogue and establishing pairings between precincts and houses of worship, according to its website. 

Lower rates of confidence in the police were found among minority groups, according to the Pew Research Center in April 2020. While 84% of white Americans expressed at least a fair amount of trust in police officers, only 74% of Hispanics and 56% of Black people shared the same sentiment. 

When community members only interact with police in adverse situations, it may lead to many distrusting officers whenever they’re around. Increasing rates of positive contact people have with the authorities could help combat this. 

Police departments using funds to support programs that help build bridges between themselves and minority groups may help increase rates of trust among all Americans.

While some may say that police funding should be up to each department’s discretion, The Shorthorn Editorial Board believes that the relationship between police departments and the communities they serve is important and deserve special attention and resources allocated to improve it.

The Shorthorn Editorial Board is made up of opinion editor Hannah Ezell; editor-in-chief Dang Le; news editor Steven Shaw; Jonathan Perriello, life and entertainment editor; design editor Claudia Humphrey; news reporters José Romero and Ayesha Hana Shaji.