Ep. 6 - When Defunding the Police Meets Political Reality (Season 2)
More than 6 months after first pledging to rethink public safety, city leaders face opposition. What’s next?
Sara Bernard is a senior podcast producer at Cascade PBS, producing Mossback and Your Last Meal. She was previously the host/producer of Northwest Reports and This Changes Everything. She can be reached at sara.bernard@cascadepbs.org.
More than 6 months after first pledging to rethink public safety, city leaders face opposition. What’s next?
Many activists leading the call to defund the police say the answer to disproportionate policing is to take money from the cops and give it to communities. But change is never as easy as writing new lines in a city budget.
As cities have searched for non-police options for crisis response, many have arrived in an unlikely place: Eugene, Oregon.
Seattle police have undergone additional training to better respond to people in crisis, but still things go wrong and people die. Why?
The debate over public safety is filled with disagreements, but almost everyone agrees on one thing: We need another option for people in crisis.