Plurality Of San Diego County Residents Support Reallocating Police Funding
Speaker 1: 00:00 The movement to defund the police is something most politicians in San Diego want nothing to do with, but a new poll indicates the political scramble away from the issue may be out of step with many residents. The poll commissioned by voice of San Diego finds more San Diego and support the concept of reallocating. Some police funding towards social services than oppose it. The support differs widely, however, among different ages, genders, races, and political affiliations. Joining me is voice of San Diego's managing editor, Sarah, Olivia, and Sarah. Welcome. Speaker 2: 00:33 Thank you for having me. How Speaker 1: 00:35 Was this poll conducted and what were the overall results? Speaker 2: 00:40 Yeah, so we surveyed three different groups actually. Um, when it came to the San Diego mayor's race, we spoke to city voters. We also surveyed residents of the district three board of supervisors race, and then we surveyed residents. County-wide um, that's a group that includes both voter registered voters and non-registered voters, um, about a number of issues that, uh, we wanted to take resident's temperature on, uh, including their feelings about local police and this question of funding. And what Speaker 1: 01:16 Did you find? How did it break down? Speaker 2: 01:18 So on the funding question specifically, um, it, it wasn't a majority who said they, uh, favored shifting funding away from police departments, but it was a plurality. So more people responded that they supported shifting funding than those who said they opposed it. Um, but like you've said, we found things broke down significantly. Um, depending on what kind of person was responding. So young people, uh, people 18 to 49 overwhelmingly supported, uh, reallocating funding, uh, while people over 50 overwhelmingly opposed such a move. Um, I think political affiliation was the strongest indicator of where someone was so likely to land on this question. So people who identified as Republicans, particularly Republican men overwhelmingly oppose the idea, um, of shifting funding while people who identified as liberal and even people who identified as independent, uh, said they supported it Speaker 1: 02:18 Question that was asked, did not use the term defund the police. Why not? Speaker 2: 02:23 Right. I think that's really important. It seems like, um, what we found is that the term itself has become so loaded that a lot of politicians especially say that they don't support it. And then they'll go on, um, to describe what they do support. And they essentially do say that they think social services are underfunded, um, and that they should be getting more money. And so the question that we asked specifically was whether people, um, opposed taking a significant amount of funds currently going to local police departments and the County Sheriff's department, and instead using them for other that could improve safety, like mental health services and substance abuse treatment. Speaker 1: 03:04 How have local politicians reacted to the movement to take some of the funding away from law enforcement? Speaker 2: 03:10 Well, like you said, they certainly haven't been supportive. We saw earlier this year, the San Diego city council, which is represented by a super majority of Democrats, um, didn't just decline to reallocate funding. They actually increased funding for the San Diego police department. Um, the two democratic candidates for mayor of San Diego have both said they do not support the idea, um, of defunding the democratic attorney general of California told us, um, last month that defunding police is something he could never support. We also saw governor Gavin Newsome veto, a bill that included a pilot project, um, for having community groups serve as first responders in certain situations. And so even though the poll found that Democrats and independents, um, really favor this idea, we've seen democratic politicians at all levels of government. Um, haven't reacted that way. Speaker 1: 04:07 And the present County board of supervisors is not in support either, is it? Speaker 2: 04:12 No, I'm, you know, we're, it's all going to come down to this district three race on the board of supervisors to determine party control. And so if a majority of Democrats ended up representing the County moving forward, that could change, but certainly the Republicans currently on the board, as well as those running for the board now say that this is not a concept that they support. Speaker 1: 04:35 Well, like the, uh, residents that you poll many politicians who say they don't support defunding also say they don't want police to be mental health or social service workers. So isn't this phrase that stopping them, get to get on the bandwagon and support this idea. Speaker 2: 04:53 Yeah, I think it's the phrase itself that is very loaded and provocative, um, that they want to stay away from as well as, you know, it all comes down to what exactly we're talking about, um, what pools of money we're pulling from. Um, so, you know, budgets are tricky things and involve a lot of moving parts. And so I think that they want to make sure that first responders have the tools that they need to stay safe and to protect the community. And it all depends on, on what that looks like. Speaker 1: 05:25 Now you spoke with a defunding advocate about the results of this poll. What was her reaction sushi? Speaker 2: 05:31 She said that she thinks it's going to take a lot more time for politicians, even democratic politicians to come around to some of these concepts. Um, but she expressed a lot of hopefulness. She said that this is the most, you know, sustained movement for, um, police reform that she has seen in her career of, of years and years of advocating for these types of changes. So she does think that changes on the way, but you know, it's not going to happen overnight. Speaker 1: 05:59 Speaking with voice of San Diego's managing editor, Sarah Libby, and Sarah, thank you so much. Thanks for having me.
