The following column is the opinion and analysis of the writer:
The Tucson Police Department is shrinking … and that’s good news for the Tucson community! Advocates across the country have called to defund police departments. In Tucson, we have a chance to make that happen.
TPD Chief Chris Magnus released a report earlier this month detailing a list of calls that TPD will no longer respond to. He told Green Valley News, “It’s a gradual transition and many of these are things we shouldn’t have been responding to in the first place.”
Mayor Regina Romero agreed with this statement. Many of these calls, which include nonviolent requests from schools and hospitals, noise complaints, panhandling and other lower-priority circumstances, will now be handled by mobile crisis teams with specialized training in mental health, substance abuse and outreach to unsheltered people.
People are also reading…
This shift follows public pleas to move funding away from police departments and toward services that cost less, as well as decrease violence and killings by police.
This announcement comes as Romero and the Tucson City Council consider substantial increases to TPD’s budget, despite thousands of Tucsonans expressing their support for defunding the police.
Magnus claims that the reduction in call responses is due to a lack of funds, yet TPD received a $2 million budget increase just months ago. He is using the reduction in calls as an opportunity to position the department for a $10.6 million increase in officer salaries and to advocate for a change to pay-for-performance compensation.
In his presentation to the City Council in January, he compared the salaries of Tucson police officers to officers in wealthier areas, such as Queen Creek, where the cost of living is higher.
On April 6, the mayor and council will vote on a pay-for-performance model for all city of Tucson employees, including those in TPD. This model emphasizes more training and education for TPD officers.
However, TPD has already claimed credit for their implemented use of body-worn cameras, chokehold bans and other policies on restrictive use of firearms.
Even with these practices in place, they had two in-custody deaths of Latinx men last year. TPD’s stance that increased trainings around topics like implicit bias would somehow change violent outcomes in the communities they police is unproven.
A 2020 study of the NYPD showed that implicit bias courses did not have a detectable effect on police behaviors.
Last year, TPD released data demonstrating their disproportionate violence toward Black community members. Data provided by the research collaborative Mapping Police Violence, using statistics from the FBI Uniform Crime Report, named TPD one of the most violent police forces in the nation.
A pay-for-performance model would increase salaries for a department that perpetuates this racialized violence.
The mayor and council cannot let Magnus’ disinformation campaign scare them into increasing the police budget. Attrition in the police force will save the city $51.5 million that can be redirected to essential social services such as housing, job creation, mental health and drug rehabilitation.
Rather than pay-for-performance increases, resources need to be invested in ways that dismantle the violent and systemic racism upheld by police. The shrinking police force is an opportunity for the City Council to make progress toward a more just and equitable city.
Amanda A. Lee is a Tucson community member and public-health professional.
