‘Defund police’? Here’s why Norfolk’s chief says yes.

Norfolk — If you listened closely enough, the seeds of the so-called “defund police” movement were planted years ago.

By the police.

For years, the top brass at the Norfolk Police Department has said officers are doing too much, spread too thin, and doing work far beyond their core mission of fighting crime. On top of fighting crime, they are tasked with being social workers, psychiatrists, addiction counselors and homelessness coordinators.

“We’re so stretched out doing other things that aren’t the primary focus of (the) police,” Police Chief Larry Boone said in an interview late last month with The Virginian-Pilot, weeks after the death of George Floyd at the hands of Minnesota officers launched calls for police reform across the country.

[ Previous coverage: Norfolk has long kept secret how police use force. Now some council members want that to change. ]

Facing budget shortfalls caused by the coronavirus pandemic and public demands for police reform, cities around the country are re-evaluating the role officers play in their communities. In May, Norfolk’s City Council passed an annual budget that included $18.5 million in spending cuts to last year’s $902 million operating budget. The cuts — a 2% reduction in the city’s $902 million general fund budget — were based on projections of tens of millions in tax dollars lost while many businesses stay closed or do a fraction of their normal business.

As part of the “defund police” movement, some are demanding the elimination of police departments. But many others use the phrase to describe a less radical step: shifting some spending from police to other priorities. They say cities should be funding more social workers, nurses or other non-police employees who are better equipped to deal with, say, the mentally ill or the homeless.

Boone said he supports giving up part of the department’s budget so officials can pay other employees better suited to doing certain types of work. He listed three situations he thinks his officers shouldn’t be dealing with: people going through mental health crises, drug abuse and homelessness.

“When are we going to get to the point where we stop sending badges and guns to these types of calls?”

Boone stressed mental illness. He said that, on some nights, he’s seen up to 10 cars parked outside Sentara Norfolk General Hospital, which means that as many as 20 officers out of service. Those officers have to stay there for hours while doctors evaluate patients and wait for psychiatric beds to open. And when they do, officers have to drive them to the facilities, sometimes as far as 2½ hours away in Northern Virginia.

All the while, those officers aren’t patrolling the streets, investigating crimes, or building relationships with people in the community.

“I really can’t afford (that),” Boone said.

Mike McKenna, a former police officer who remains involved with the union that represents rank-and-file officers, disagrees. He doesn’t think city officials should take any money from the department. If anything, he wants them to give more money to a force that he says is underfunded and understaffed.

McKenna said officers build trust and learn about their community, in part, by dealing with mentally ill people and the homeless.

He gave several examples of mentally ill people he regularly encountered while working as an officer. One guy — 6-foot-8, 400 pounds — would get right in officers’ faces, screaming, but would get in the back of a police car if you told him to. If you touched him, however, he’d go berserk and you’d have a knock-down-drag-out fight on your hands.

Another man thought he was a ninja and would swing a sword around. “If you didn’t know the guy, you’d probably shoot (him),” he said. But McKenna and others knew they could easily talk the guy down because they dealt with him previously.

In both cases, dealing with the men repeatedly and knowing about them allowed police officers to safely resolve mental health crises, he said.

The police department has made up an ever-increasing share of the city’s operating budget over the past five years. That share ticked up from about 8% of the city’s $818 million general fund in 2014, to 8.8% of the $883 million officials project they’ll have to run the city next year.

During budget discussions, City Manager Chip Filer said police will get slightly more funding this year than last, by about 0.5%. But that was less than the 1.9% increase in police spending that had been planned before the pandemic.

This isn’t the first time city leaders have forced other departments to tighten their belts while leaving police relatively unscathed — or even giving them more money. When the city saw a nearly 5% decrease in operating funds in 2011 after the Great Recession, officials approved a nearly 4% increase for police, according to city budget documents.

[ Previous coverage: Norfolk police chief backs a new citizen oversight board as residents push for reform ]

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Norfolk leaders haven’t yet discussed whether to make any significant changes to police funding. But they’re having a broader discussion about reform, and the City Council is scheduled to discuss “public safety transparency and accountability” at its 4 p.m. meeting Tuesday.

Councilwoman Mamie Johnson said she would like to see the city create a team of non-police workers who rush to mental health crises, freeing up police to fight crime. She said she would support reallocating money to fund such a team.

“Is the police department the best resource to address that? No,” she said.

But, Johnson added, she needs to know how much of officers’ workload is taken up by responding to calls for people going through such crises. At the interview in late June, Boone said he was analyzing data on the roughly 240,000 calls for service his officers are dispatched to each year to see how many of them involve dealing with mental illness, drug abuse and the homeless. But he said that analysis won’t be part of what the council discusses Tuesday.

Mayor Kenny Alexander as well as council members Paul Riddick and Tommy Smigiel said they don’t support reducing the police department’s budget at all. But Alexander and Smigiel said they’re open to talking about how to reform the department.

Councilmembers Martin Thomas Jr., Courtney Doyle, Angelia Williams Graves, and Andria McClellan did not respond to multiple calls and emails requesting interviews.

Jonathan Edwards, 757-739-7180, jonathan.edwards@pilotonline.com