Stronger, Safer Communities

Supporting Local Law Enforcement

The Parent Party supports the effort made by law enforcement officers to keep American streets and schools safe. When our children study in school or walk home from the bus stop, they should not be afraid.

As parents and citizens, we reject calls to “defund the police” because the police are our first line of defense, keeping our streets and neighborhoods safe for children to attend school without fear. Educational freedom and transparency in school management matters little if schools are not surrounded by safe communities.

Recent calls to “defund the police” propose slashing funding away from police departments to other government agencies. What defunding efforts often overlook is the irreplaceable value that police programs contribute to society through and beyond patrolling and jailing.

Police officers in America come from all genders, creeds and races, and play a substantial role in representing the communities they protect. While police reform in the form of training and vetting officers might occasionally be necessary, the call to take essential funding away from law enforcement at the same time that increased spending is necessary to enact various reforms is an oxymoronic request. Police officers and programs play a critical role in maintaining our nation’s ongoing safety and security and must retain public support in order for officers to effectively carry out their duties.

While at least 16 major cities are currently considering measures to defund police, according to a 2020 poll 64 percent of Americans oppose any form of “defunding” efforts. In fact, many of the most drastic measures taken to reduce police budgets in major U.S. cities were taken with very little consideration for public opinion or the consequences for such actions, particularly the rise in crime that follows these defunding efforts. This rash pace of action sets a dangerous precedent as the calls to defund and disband departments by activists continue to grow louder in cities across the country.

The Parent Party supports our men and women in blue and rejects calls to take away the funding necessary to keep our streets and schools safe. Hastily taking away the funds needed to provide the manpower, training, and review that can help improve the quality and efficacy of police programs will only escalate the escalate theissues at hand.

School safety is one of the primary reasons parents desire school choice opportunities, particularly in communities where violence is prevalent. Educational freedom can help students of all backgrounds get out of schools where bullying or gang violence is common.

In Milwaukee for instance, research has found that school choice participants were half as likely to commit felonies and misdemeanors as those who went to their local public school.

Two other studies show a similar pattern:

• School safety was one of the top reasons parents used school choice means available to them in the largest-ever survey conducted of a private school choice program. Among 15,000 respondents in Florida, 36 percent listed school safety in their top three priorities when choosing a school.

• Parents reported school safety-related motivations for exercising school choice in other settings as well, such as Washington, D.C., which is home to a large network of charter schools.

  The Parent Party supports law enforcement, as safe schools are only possible through safe communities. While the call to reform police departments to make communities safer might be warranted in rare cases, it does not change the fact that police need funding to ensure that students and parents alike are kept safe and not in constant danger or at risk of harm