Cutting Tacoma police budget just 1 percent is big mistake that gets zero headlines

Shortly before the National Day of Mourning (still called Thanksgiving by most), the Tacoma City Council voted to approve the 2021-2022 biennial budget.

The Fire Department received cuts no one asked for, justifiably making local headlines. The Police Department received an insignificant cut to its massive, $175 million budget, despite public outcry for substantially more. This was apparently deemed unnewsworthy.

At best, the 1% cut was a token gesture. This action by the City Council won’t disrupt future police violence and won’t provide the alternative services that Tacomans have asked for, repeatedly.

Other portions of the budget, like the commitment to 8 Can’t Wait and the bold plan for anti-racist policing could be seen as noteworthy responses to the local Black Lives Matter movement.

But we’ve seen this all before. Like a recurring nightmare, tragedy begets outrage, outrage begets resentment, proclamations are made and nothing fundamentally changes.

I get it. Change is scary. There is comfort in clinging to ideas many of us were raised with: like, police make us all safe and Thanksgiving honors Indigenous people.

But change is necessary when people are harmed by the status quo. The erasure of genocidal atrocities honors no one. And selective deafness to communities enduring brutal and unconstitutional policing is the cruelest kind of inaction.

As the Biden era begins, Black and Indigenous lives will continue to be lost at unconscionable rates if we collectively fail to transform how public safety is achieved in our communities.

Although there is talk of investigating alternative responses in Tacoma and investigating police violence, talk won’t prevent the next Manny Ellis, Bennie Branch or Jackie Salyers. The list of names will grow.

Where exactly did the Obama-era Department of Justice investigations of unconstitutional and racially biased policing get us, but to this summer’s intensified demands for radical transformation?

Where did the Kerner Commission report get us, but to this horrific echo of unresolved societal failure?

I know many believe this can be solved with more reforms, but there is no amount of training that will change someone’s character. There is no amount of training that will make someone empathic if they are not.

As someone who worked in behavioral healthcare for close to a decade, I know that de-escalation works, but it has to be done by the right people and it has to be done the right way.

I have seen police officers escalate crisis situations with my clients instead of de-escalating them. I have seen colleagues do more harm than good in spite of their de-escalation training.

In my experience, the right people to intervene in crises are folks from the community who understand the traumas, stressors and cultures of the community.

They are our sisters, brothers, aunties, uncles and friends who have genuine empathy, a calming presence, who know how to listen, who know how to respect boundaries and are caretakers at their core.

Find them. Pay them. Support them. Invest in these community assets.

Tacoma residents have marched in the streets, protested in front of police headquarters and bombarded City Council meetings with calls to reallocate funds from the bloated police budget into community-based public safety programs.

These impassioned pleas were reiterated when more than 800 Tacomans cut the police budget by an average of nearly 40% in the city’s “Balancing Act” survey and demanded investment in communities of color.

How many more lives will it take before they are heard? When will City Council take the bold action of truly listening to those most adversely affected by the needless loss of life and begin to follow cities like Minneapolis, Austin, Los Angeles and Seattle?

The Black Lives Matter movement isn’t going away because humanity will always demand dignity. It won’t be silenced by the condescension of centrists any more than it will be silenced by the bigoted ravings of racist uncles. The time to innovate is now.

The 1% cut in Tacoma didn’t make the news because it leaves the oversized police budget intact. But when the next tragedy occurs, the budget will be newsworthy once again.

A pattern of police violence won’t go away because lofty words were placed in a document. To resolve the ugly truths of a history that hasn’t passed, we must invest in a reimagined future.

Ken Cruz is an assistant professor in the School of Social Work and Criminal Justice at the University of Washington Tacoma.