Defunding the Police: Does Europe Offer Lessons for the U.S.?

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"Calls to 'defund the police' have grown in the United States since the May 25 death of George Floyd, an unarmed black man, in police custody.

President Donald Trump has dismissed the movements as radical. But advocates say scaling back the remit of the police and bolstering other services is viable."

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Rightful Policing
"Several high-profile incidents have called into question the ways in which police interact with the public and how satisfaction with police performance is measured. The author argues that the two dominant measures of police performance — its lawfulness and its effectiveness at fighting crime and increasing public safety — are inadequate, failing to take into account how ordinary people assess their treatment by state authorities. Drawing on research that indicates that people care less about the outcomes of their encounters with police than about whether or not they were treated fairly and with respect and their concerns were listened to, Professors Meares and Neyroud call for third way to assess policing — 'rightful policing.' Rightful policing looks at four elements of procedural justice in police encounters with the public — quality of treatment, decision-making fairness, voice and expectation of benevolent treatment. She argues that police conduct that takes into account these four factors leads to greater police legitimacy in the eyes of the citizenry and ultimately to more willing obedience to the law."

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