Imagine a place that feels safe to you. What does it look like? How does it smell? Is it cold? Warm? What do you see? What do you hear? What do you feel?
When people do this exercise, they typically don’t imagine police, prisons, or surveillance. The answers range widely, but similar themes emerge: family, community, love, freedom, art, beauty, culture, food, care. Some may feel safe in a particular place around certain people such as family; others feel safe at home in bed; still others may attach safety to an object. Some may describe being home with family and loved ones, the smell of their favorite childhood dishes being cooked, or laughing and having a good time with friends.
In the United States, as well as in other punitive societies, policing is framed as the solution to threats to safety. Building strong, accountable, transformative communities is the way we get to safety. It’s also the way to stop police violence. To create a new paradigm of safety, it is necessary to abolish all systems of policing and the entire criminal punishment system more broadly. Even more, we can contribute to a cultural transformation that does not reproduce and market fear, punishment, and violence.
There isn’t one vision for a police- and prison-free world. There are many, and it’s important not to conflate them. Collectively, they can serve as seeds to help communities forge safety free of police and cages. Abolition is, at its core, a process. In my estimation, it’s important not to replicate the forms of policing, surveillance, and imprisonment that have come to mark contemporary society. I learn from, and hope to contribute to, the work of the abolitionists who have come before me, those who think alongside me, and those yet to come. There are many visions; this book represents my analysis of the problems of policing and visions for ways forward.
Addressing the root causes of harm and violence is essential for building safer communities. Investing in resources such as education, mental health support, and economic opportunities can create environments where people thrive and conflicts are less likely to escalate into violence. Additionally, fostering strong social ties and community engagement helps build trust and mutual support. Implementing restorative and transformative justice practices allows communities to address harm through dialogue and healing rather than punishment and retribution. By focusing on prevention and community empowerment, we can create a society where safety is achieved through collective care and responsibility, rather than defaulting to policing and incarceration. Ultimately, building a police-free world is a community endeavor.
In early June 2020, the Minneapolis City Council voted to disband the Minneapolis Police Department (MPD) and introduce a novel approach to public safety in the city: the Department of Community Safety and Violence Prevention. The new department was meant to focus on efforts such as community-led solutions, crisis response, and restorative justice, and to greatly reduce police power and scope. The move followed the tragic murder of George Floyd by Minneapolis police on May 25, 2020, which sparked an uprising in Minneapolis and widespread protests across the nation and beyond, with many calling for defunding and abolishing policing. As the days went on, the nation held its breath as the Minneapolis Police Department’s Third Precinct went up in flames—something never before seen in generations of responses to police violence. Minneapolis became the first city to develop a plan to disband its police department, while other cities made commitments to divert funds from policing into community-based approaches to safety. The demands that emerged out of Minneapolis were a part of a longer legacy of abolitionist and invest–divest campaign organizing by three collectives: MPD150, Reclaim the Block, and the Black Visions Collective.
MPD150, founded in 2016, is composed of organizers, researchers, and activists committed to researching and documenting the 150-year history of the Minneapolis Police Department. In a report titled Enough Is Enough: A 150-Year Performance Review of the Minneapolis Police Department, it exposed the long history of violently racist practices within the police force that had led the collective to advocate for the abolition of the police and the implementation of community-based safety approaches. While MPD150 initially planned to disband in 2020, the group’s work gained renewed momentum due to the uprising against police brutality following the murder of George Floyd. MPD150 committed to continue advocating for abolition, supporting other organizations and individuals engaged in similar work, and providing resources and tool kits to help the broader public understand community safety. It also engaged with city council members and Minneapolis residents to envision the disbanding of the city’s police department. The collective ultimately sunsetted in November 2022, but its website continues to host a range of digital resources and reflections developed during its six years of work.
In January 2020, months before George Floyd was murdered, I wrote an article about a city that refused to divest from policing despite years of campaigns. The piece centered on a collective of organizers engaged in invest–divest campaigns to channel resources from police to community resources and institutions in Minneapolis. I pitched the piece to editor after editor. They all said no—that the story was too local and not a national news hook. Eventually, it was published under the title “Increases in Police Funding Will Not Make Black People Safe, It Is Time City Leaders Listened.” In the days following the murder of George Floyd, I realized that the coalition I’d focused on in the piece I had written in January—Reclaim the Block—was at the center of national demands to defund and abolish policing.
Reclaim the Block is a multiracial organization founded in 2018 to advocate for redirecting funds away from police and toward social services such as housing and public education and community-based safety approaches. As Tony Williams, a member of the collective, told Teen Vogue in 2020:
Our work has always been about divesting funds from the police department and investing in community-led alternatives, and we feel it has particular importance in our current moment. In 2018, we approached the city council asking for 5% of the Minneapolis police budget to be reduced. Instead, we were able to negotiate that $1.1 million that was originally meant to hire eight new police officers could be used to create the Office of Violence Prevention in Minneapolis.
Reclaim the Block centered its work on efforts targeting Minneapolis’s city council with invest–divest campaigning, including a campaign to divert $2 million from the MPD’s public relations fund to violence prevention. The mayor and city council resisted its calls for years, but in 2020, after the murder of George Floyd, the council voted to disband the MPD.
The organizing momentum and vision of a new approach to safety was also driven by the Black Visions Collective and MPD150. Speaking with Teen Vogue, Molly Glasgow, a member of MPD150, described the on-the-ground work of MPD150 throughout the protests, which included delivering essential supplies and engaging in community protection and mutual aid efforts. The collective also developed posters, study guides, and lists of books that put abolition and community safety visions into context. MPD150 gave out these resources alongside Black Visions and Reclaim the Block to people in the community as well as to teachers and schools and made them available online to help people understand the promises of community-based safety.
Black Visions Collective, an organization led by Black, queer, and trans activists dedicated to dismantling systems of violence and environmental injustice, was also at the forefront of the Minneapolis uprising. Founded in 2017, Black Visions is focused on building community safety and fostering a sense of community without any reliance on the police. During the uprisings, Black Visions Collective worked with residents to increase understanding of community safety, collected donations, and provided resources and support to activists and residents protesting. The collective also orchestrated mobilizations in which members of the community visited city council members to emphasize the importance of disbanding the police department and investing in a community-led vision of safety. Those direct, unapologetic efforts helped create an environment that made city council members more open to reimagining safety in ways that had never been done before by a legislative body, despite pushback from the mayor. The collective focused on raising the conversation beyond reform in Minneapolis and helped spark a broader conversation around abolition across the United States and beyond.
While the movement gained momentum and support, the disbanding of the police, approved by a veto-proof council majority, was thwarted. The city council initially proposed a measure to replace the police force with a Department of Community Safety and Violence Prevention and intended to put it onto the November 2020 ballot. But in the months that followed, some city council members withdrew their support. Then, in August 2020, the Charter Commission, an obscure oversight body affiliated with the state government, blocked the measure from appearing on the ballot, effectively ending the plan.
In place of the initially transformative vision, the city council voted to reduce the MPD police budget by 4.5 percent, which would not change the number of police. The $8 million taken from the $179 million MPD budget was directed to mental health training for emergency call centers, mobile crisis teams to respond to certain 911 calls, and funding for community-based violence prevention initiatives.
By engaging in research, protest, political education, and community building, MPD150, Black Visions, and Reclaim the Block collectively challenged the notion that police reform is the only option. In fact, they were able to make gains in promoting abolitionist visions and community-led safety efforts along with organizers across the United States. Thus the uprising was not simply met with the traditional cycle of responses; an intervention forced the conversation to change. The efforts led to the development of community patrols, medical treatment facilities, mutual aid initiatives, and donation centers, all without police involvement. The cycle of conversations that would typically take place after a high-profile case of police violence changed as a result of abolitionist organizing—and interconnected conversations—in Minneapolis and across the United States. The injection of abolitionist language into popular discourse changed history.
Around the globe, police and military forces reinforce deeply entrenched societal inequalities. From Hong Kong to France, Brazil, Palestine, London, South Africa, and beyond, uprisings have erupted in response to the violence of policing. Though the uniforms may differ and the badges vary, the underpinning ethos remains strikingly consistent: preservation of the status quo. The United States, interestingly, has been both a student and a teacher in the realm of policing. While it borrows from global practices, it simultaneously exports its enforcement strategies, furthering the reach of its control. International exchanges between policing entities, such as U.S. police training with Israeli forces, illustrate a web of control that transcends borders. This is not merely a U.S. issue; it’s a global narrative that has roots in colonization and imperialism. At the heart of it, police universally serve as guardians of inequality, propping up systems that privilege a select few.
In an example highlighting the expanding use of surveillance technology within law enforcement, Eric Adams, the mayor of New York City, returned from a visit to Israel in August 2023, having observed the integration of drones and motorcycles by Israeli law enforcement at its National Police Academy. Inspired by these tactics, the New York Police Department utilized drones to oversee the crowd during the 2023 West Indian American Day Carnival over Labor Day weekend, an event attracting more than 2 million attendees.
This is part of a broader trend in which technological advancements are increasingly shared by law enforcement agencies around the globe. The mayor’s endorsement of advanced technologies in policing is further exemplified by his support for Digidog, a robotic canine intended for use in emergency situations, such as building collapses, that has sparked privacy concerns. The adoption of such technologies by the NYPD reflects a growing inclination toward sophisticated surveillance and intervention tools in urban law enforcement, signaling a shift toward a more technologically advanced and interconnected police state.
These developments not only raise questions about privacy and civil liberties but also underscore the international dimensions of policing strategies. The exchange of tactics and technologies between countries such as the United States and Israel illustrates a global trend in the increasing militarization and technological sophistication of police forces. This trend points to a broader pattern of escalating surveillance and control, further blurring the lines between domestic law enforcement and military operations. It raises critical concerns about privacy rights and the expanding reach of police technology and power.
But we stand at a pivotal moment. It’s time for a collective reimagining of safety. The global economy is buttressed by what can only be termed violence work. Under this framework, the police are not just enforcers but crucial cogs, ensuring that existing imbalances remain undisturbed. Yet there are pockets of the world in which police presence is minimal, where safety doesn’t mean armed patrols. Such communities often lack what mainstream society would label “the other.” In other communities, people experience harm, violence, and precarity that require transformative solutions. These examples underscore the need for expansive dialogues on safety.
Our challenge is to ask ourselves and our communities: What does genuine safety look like? How do we cultivate environments in which everyone can thrive, free from the shadows of exploitation and resource extraction? The answer may well lie in embracing Huey P. Newton’s vision of intercommunalism, unshackling ourselves from the chains of capitalism and oppressive politics that necessitate policing in the first place, and finding ways to peacefully coexist through difference. For organizers globally, it is essential to ask: What does our community need right now? What will it take to prioritize safety rather than managing inequality? All people deserve the resources they need to thrive, and the key to providing them is disrupting the unjust global economy that favors the wealthy and challenging resource extraction, imperialism, and exploitation. There’s an urgent call to challenge the roles of police and military as violence workers, gatekeepers of a status quo that benefits those with power and privilege. A growing number of voices have rightfully critiqued the existence of borders and the violent measures employed by police and military forces to uphold them, all of which originate from the roots of settler colonialism. Abolition is not confined by national borders; it’s a universal aspiration. By striving for it, we can collectively evolve, fostering relationships founded on equity and mutual respect. Abolition is a global movement, a journey to redefine humanity’s commitments and future.
From the book Beyond Policing by Philip V. McHarris. Copyright © 2024 by Philip V. McHarris. Reprinted by permission of Legacy Lit, an imprint of Grand Central Publishing, a division of Hachette Book Group, Inc., New York, NY. All rights reserved.
Image: Josh Hild/Unsplash
