Poll: ‘Defund the Police’ Doesn’t Fly With Majority of Voters

While leftists have made “defunding the police” their rallying cry, less than one in five voters think America should spend less on police.

In fact, 52 percent of voters actually think America needs to spend more on police, according to a Rasmussen poll released on Tuesday. Only 18 percent think the country should spend less on police, and 23 percent say the current amount of funding for police is about right.

Sixty-six percent of voters agree with this statement: “The radical and reckless decisions by some jurisdictions to defund their police forces have had a real and devastating effect on American communities.”

“That’s a quote from a letter that Republican Reps. Kevin McCarthy and Jim Jordan sent to Attorney General Merrick Garland this month. Only 24 percent of voters disagree, while 11 percent are not sure,” according to the poll report.

Sixty-five percent of whites, 62 percent of black voters and 70 percent of other minorities also agree with McCarthy and Jordans’ statement.

Big cities funneled millions of dollars away from departments over the past year after the death of George Floyd. Many city leaders are walking back their plans, as violent crime spikes across the country.

Breitbart News previously reported:

New York City Mayor Bill de Blasio is planning to reinstate $92 million to build a new precinct cut from the budget last year. From January 1 through May 23, 2021 there were 531 shootings in the city, up from 295 during the same period last year.

In Baltimore, Mayor Brandon Scott, who as a city councilman led efforts to cut the police budget by $22 million, is now proposing a $27 million increase.

In Oakland, California — where by mid-April the city had recorded 41 homicides, up from 13 over the same period last year — city lawmakers voted in April to put $3.3 million of the $29 million it had slashed back into the police budget.

Los Angeles Mayor Eric Garcetti wants an increase in police spending of about $50 million after the city cut $150 million last year.

“The president pointed to what his administration has acknowledged is a spike in violence — homicides in the first quarter of 2021 were up 24 percent over the same period last year, it said — as justification for stricter gun laws,” Breitbart News reported.

President Joe Biden’s strongest supporters are against increased police funding. A quarter of his strongest supporters think the country should spend less on police. In contrast, 76 percent of voters who strongly disapprove of Biden’s performance favor more spending.

The survey of 775 U.S. likely voters was conducted on June 24 and 27, 2021. The margin of sampling error is +/- 3 percentage points with a 95 percent level of confidence.