196

Note that Baltimore never defunded the BPD. In fact it got a funding increase and a marketing boost so that it promises to protect and serve better.

Considering an officer clip-dumped at an unarmed man in November 2023, the BPD seems as robustly killology-ready as ever.

Note that no law enforcement department or agency has been defunded since the George Floyd incident. Not even Minneapolis where the city council voted to do so. (They got cold feet after pressure from the police unions.) Some cities are creating new alternative responder teams to handle mental health situations. Oakland, California, for instance, now has a department of first responders trained to handle and deescalate mental-illness-related crises who are directed by 911 emergency dispatch, but this hasn't reduced the budget of the police. (Oakland is also one of the municipal areas with an elevated officer-involved homicide rate).