As a result of the Movement to Defund the Police, Police Departments are facing the same issue that Animal Control organizations have faced for years. For some reason, Community leaders think that an organization’s name is everything. Animal Control Officers have faced the gambit of Pound, to Animal Control, to Animal Services, to Animal Care and Protective Services. The fact is that changing a name does little. If you want to see more community support, you need to fund the organization sufficiently to allow it to do their job.
Police Departments are undergoing name changes to Department of Public Services. To me, a “public service” includes trash pickup. The purpose of Defunding the Police movement is to stop officers from arresting people. The fewer people arrested of minor crimes will reduce the number of minorities going to jail. If a community is serious about wanting every community to be treated the same, then the solution is to fund racial sensitivity training to encourage our officers to see into the mind of the minorities that they come in contact with. I am not talking about the idiotic training that claims that there is something wrong with people born white. Racial equality is not reached by suppressing whites. Racial equality is to show the community that everyone is treated the same. It should also show that when arrested, that people should act the same. If you act like a butthead when you are arrested, you should not expect the same treatment as someone how respects the officer arresting you.
Changing the name of an organization will do nothing. It takes the proper funding and attention to an organization to facilitate change. It should not restrict an officer from applying the sufficient force to keep from getting hurt, or doing their jobs. The best thing that a community can give to their employees is to provide them the necessary training to do their jobs correctly. Unfortunately, during budget cuts, employee training is the first to go.