De-policing is when a police force partially discontinues its policing as a defensive reaction to allegations of discrimination or police misconduct. It arose as a reaction to police departments accused of using excessive force, committing criminal acts or targeting minorities. This strategy may lead to an increase in criminal activity in the affected communities.
De-policing could be called the backlash of racial profiling. While the idea of de-policing has been around for several decades, it wasn’t until the late 1990s that the title “de-policing” actually came into use. The definition of de-policing is: a police force that partially discontinues its policing as a defensive reaction to allegations of discrimination or police misconduct. Cops can respond to 911 calls and investigate major crimes like homicide or bank robbery, while ignoring traffic violations or burglary of a residence if committed by some minority citizens.
De-policing arose as a reaction of police departments accused, rightly or wrongly, of using excessive force, committing criminal acts or targeting minorities, racial profiling, arrests for breaking the law, while favoring the majority race in a community ignoring their violation of the law. When the denials fell on deaf ears, police departments used a de-policing strategy to stop extending full police protection to community citizens.
When a police department is accused of racial profiling, the prosecution suggests that police officers are targeting members of a certain race to arrest them for crimes committed solely because they are members of the targeted race. The unspoken underside of racial profiling suggests that officers may ignore members of other races who commit crimes, while they are focusing on the target race. These allegations are difficult to prove or disprove, and when a police department is charged, sometimes instead of attempting to prove they have not profiled a certain race, they may resort to de-policing as a means of defense. The theory is that if police officers ignore the crimes committed by the races they have been accused of profiling and targeting, there will be no more charges.
Unfortunately, while de-policing may see the number of arrests decrease in the overall population, the communities where de-policing takes place will usually see an increase in criminal activity. In recent years, several major American cities have experimented with de-policy following allegations of misconduct by police officers. While de-policing, as a reaction to negative criticism may be understandable, it may not be the best way to address the problem.
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