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What does 'defunding police departments' actually mean? We asked a Boise State criminal justice professor

Dr. Bill King said this isn't the first time we've seen a shift, or at least a call for one, in how America polices itself.

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BOISE, Idaho — It's the latest movement to offshoot out of the Black Lives Matter movement: the call to defund police departments across the country.

It's not a new call, in fact, it's been in the making for decades.

But what does 'defunding' a police department actually mean?

Dr. Bill King, a professor of criminal justice at Boise State, says while taking money away from police departments would be part of the plan, the goal would actually be to shift money to other resources.

Dr. King said this isn't the first time we've seen a shift, or at least a call for one, in how America polices itself.

He says back around the year 1900, departments were told to focus only on crime, to stay away from all the other stuff. It stayed that way until around the 1970s.

That's when they noticed that 'focusing only on crime' was actually causing a distant rift between the police and their community, which Dr. King says was the impetus for community policing something Treasure Valley police departments and sheriff's offices have refocused on.

Watch the video for Brian Holmes' entire interview with Dr. King

During a press conference to introduce Boise's newest police chief earlier this week, Mayor Lauren McLean said she was against defunding the Boise Police Department.

The Boise Police Department accounts for 28% of this year's city budget, or more than $70,000,000.

Of that money, $130,000 is spent on a mental health coordinator, a civilian that gets called in during a mental health crisis to help that person instead of using a patrol officer.

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