District Attorney advocates to ‘refund’, not defund police

WILMINGTON, NC (WWAY) — Since the protests over the death of George Floyd began, the question of whether or not to defund the police has been raised by many in the Cape Fear and across the country.

New Hanover County District Attorney Ben David says we need law enforcement as well as funding for other resources. When talking about defunding the police, David says he looks at it as refunding the police by spreading funding to a number of areas in the community.

“It is not either or,” David said. “You don’t like the police or like Black Lives Matter movement you can say ‘yes’ and you can support both. With respect to the movement to defund the police departments, I think that would be a tragic mistake, and I don’t think that’s really what folks are talking about.”

David says there are lot of ways to refund law enforcement agencies. He explains officers serve a number of different roles right now, and refunding could help allocate more resources to different programs throughout the community.

“Refunding the police, really means putting them into areas of critical need and get police out of the business of doing some of the social work that, frankly, we’re putting onto them,” he said.

David says refunding police can mean putting more funding and resources toward groups such as mental health workers and community liaisons, and defining officers’ roles more clearly.

“Some need to carry guns. Some need to be mental health counselors who learn how to de-escalate,” he said. “Some need to treat people because they’re the first arrivals and may need to give CPR or life-saving Narcan.”

David says spreading funding to different community resources can also allow certain officers to focus on the areas they’re needed most, and build relationships with people in the community.

“Going to the areas of critical need where violence still eats up communities and build that trust through being guardians and not warriors,” he said.

David also addressed the concerns about funding the prison system, saying not all prisons are for-profit systems. Over the last several years he says the state has closed a number of prisons and moved that funding towards things like treatment facilities and health programs.