Purpose of the Assignment Calls to “defund the police” were widespread following

Purpose of the Assignment
Calls to “defund the police” were widespread following the death of George Floyd in 2020. While the frustration following such incidents is certainly understandable, defunding the police would be no simple task. Such a monumental shift in how our local governments operate would require significant forethought and planning. What would defunding the police look like? Although it is easy to argue that mental health professional, and not police officers, should respond to mental health crises, what happens when the individual in crisis becomes violent? And who responds to mass shootings? Furthermore, there are frequent calls to train the police on topics such as implicit bias and de-escalation—these trainings cannot occur without funding. All of this is to say that defunding the police is a complicated undertaking that would require a great deal of thinking and creativity.
The purpose of this assignment is to have you think about how money that has been set aside for police departments should be spent to improve outcomes (e.g., use of force, mental health crises).
Assignment Requirements
For this assignment, you must decide whether to “defund or fund” the Tampa Police Department (TPD).
If you choose to defund TPD, you must explain where that money would go instead. In other words, who will now carry out the responsibilities of TPD? We all know many would prefer that mental health professionals respond to mental health crises, but how else can the police role be reduced? Be creative with this!
If you would choose to fund TPD, you must explain how the agency will spend that money to improve outcomes and the agency’s relationship with the city. Do officers receive more training? If so, what kind of training and how will that lead to improvements? Do officers spend more time engaging with the community? Again, be creative here!
Please note that I do not expect you to know what TPD currently does nor do I expect you to know what their budget looks like or how they’re spending their dollars. Instead, I am asking you, generally, how do you think our tax dollars should be spent on this issue?
Your response for this assignment should be 1 page, double-spaced. You can go over, but don’t submit more than 2 pages—be concise. You will be graded on:
Your ability to critically think about, and creatively determine, whether to defund or fund the police
The quality of your writing (i.e., response free of spelling and grammatical errors)
Your ability to follow assignment guidelines (i.e., four complete sentences per question)
Rubric
100%
Student exhibited a strong ability to critically think, and his/her response was of high quality and adhered to assignment guidelines.
≥ 90%
Student exhibited an ability to critically think, and his/her response was mostly free of errors and adhered to assignment guidelines.
≥ 80%
Student’s ability was weaker or his/her response contained several errors or failed to adhere to guidelines.
≤ 70%
Student’s response did not reflect an ability to critically think, and his/her response was of poor quality.