What happened to efforts to ‘defund the police’ in Minneapolis and elsewhere?

Three years after “defund the police” became a rallying cry that emerged in the fury over the police killing of George Floyd, efforts to do away with conventional policing have largely fizzled in Minneapolis and beyond.

The movement faltered in Minneapolis after activists failed to build broad support for a goal that lacked a clear definition and an alternative that residents could agree on. When crime surged, the idea lost steam and Republicans seized on it as evidence that Democrats were being recklessly soft on crime.

In 2021, critics of the Minneapolis Police Department put forward a proposal to disband the police department and establish a new public safety agency with a ballot initiative that would have significantly altered the city’s approach to public safety.

As the measure was being debated, police officers were resigning and retiring in large numbers amid sinking morale and, at the same time, Minneapolis was seeing a surge in crime.

Ultimately, voters rejected the measure by a wide margin.

Efforts to put more money into initiatives such as youth programs, substance abuse intervention and mental health treatment have been slow to gain traction.

Mayor Jacob Frey of Minneapolis, who opposed disbanding the Police Department, said the way the “defund the police” debate unfolded was counterproductive.

“When causes are reduced to a simple litmus test, it stagnates the work,” Mr. Frey said in an interview. “The questions that are debated are not geared around solutions, and solutions are what you need to focus on.”

Even in Minneapolis, dominated by Democrats, residents said the idea of getting rid of a traditional police department was more complicated than it seemed at first. Charlotte Hall, 62, who was born and raised in south Minneapolis, said she understood the outrage that drove young activists to pursue that goal. But the vision struck her as utopian, she said.

“You can’t defund the police, you have to have police,” she said. “There’s bad police officers out here, but all of them aren’t bad.”