Former Seattle police chief: ‘Defund’ movement demoralized cops, fueled crime
Author and former Seattle police chief Carmen Best on police morale deteriorating amid a crime uptick.
Former Seattle police chief Carmen Best told "America's Newsroom" that the "defund police" movement demoralized cops and fueled crime. Best reacted to police departments in major cities seeing significant declines in the recruitment of Black officers.
DEFUND THE POLICE MOVEMENT STILL HURTING LAW ENFORCEMENT ACROSS THE UNITED STATES
CARMEN BEST: I believe that police departments should reflect the communities that they serve. We should have a wide level of diversity within all our organizations. But as you know, policing has been in the crosshairs especially over the last year with all of the demonstrations and the issues around race and racism and certainly those issues are valid and should be addressed.
But, at the same time, the defunding movement in many ways makes people so demoralized. I know in Seattle when officers left, many of them on their exit interviews laid the blame mostly at the city council for not supporting them through budget and other avenues.
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