Defund the Police – Demands

Defund the Police. 

Demilitarize the Police. 

Disarm the Police. 

Dismantle the Police. 

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DEFUND THE POLICE

1. Immediately redirect a minimum of 50 percent of the $26.4 million PPS budget towards investing in secure, long-term housing for street-involved and unhoused communities, food sovereignty programs, public transit, public health, public libraries, and community-led anti-violence programs.

DEMILITARIZE THE POLICE

1. Make the information about the anonymous donor of the Osh Kosh Sandcat, a light armoured vehicle that is designed for military use, available to the public and agrees never to accept anonymous donations in the future.

2. Remove the Osh Kosh Sandcat from the police force, remove all weapons from police and other law enforcement, including tasers, batons, firearms, and weapons that target the respiratory system.

3. End the mass surveillance of our communities through the use of technology.

4. End the surveillance of citizens through information collected by community partners.

REMOVE COPS FROM SCHOOLS

1. Remove school police and resource officers (SROs) in all schools (Public, Catholic, Private, and Post-Secondary) in Peterborough.

DECRIMINALIZE POVERTY, DRUGS, HIV AND SEX WORK

1. Release and expunge record for all poverty-related charges (including bylaw infractions, solicitation, sleeping outside, public urination, loitering, solicitation).

2. Decriminalize drugs, sex work, and HIV status.

3. Release and expunge records of all drug-related and sex work charges.

REDUCE SCOPE OF POLICE

1. End the expansion of the Peterborough Police Services into the downtown Peterborough Bus Terminal.

2. End the practice of carding, street checks, and patrolling.

3. End all special constable programs and all policing on all campuses.

4. End the policing of minor by-law infractions and noise complaints.

5. End paid-duty policing programs (officers for hire by developers, street festivals, etc.).

6. End any police collaboration with Canada Border Services Agency (CBSA).

7. End all stealth police cars and plain-clothes operations.

8. End the police response to landlord-tenant disputes.

9. End all police involvement in Pride events.

DOCUMENT POLICE VIOLENCE

1. Mandate the public election of data regarding police killings and police brutality incidents for all local, regional, provincial, and federal police or law enforcement agencies disaggregated by race, gender, age, and citizenship.

2. Where and when relevant, grant media and family immediate access to all body-cam and dash-cam video evidence.

BAN UNION CONTRACTS FROM INTERFERING WITH POLICE ACCOUNTABILITY

1. Eliminate the ability for officers to review evidence before submitting it to an investigation.

2. Allow for the investigation of all civilian complaints regardless of when they were filed.

3. Prohibit the destruction of personnel files and complaints.

4. End arbitration after internal disciplines.

5. End indemnification for police abuse.

CREATE COMMUNITY-LED ALTERNATIVES

1. Provide permanent secure housing options for all people who need housing.

2. Create Crisis Intervention and community co-led support teams; work with communities to develop models that work for them.

3. Create police-free, community-led, trauma-informed emergency service for mental health/psychiatric distress and other forms of crisis.

4. Invest in community support for shelters, drop-ins, and after school programming in low-income neighbourhoods.

5. Create restorative services, mental health services, and community-run health centres.

6. Invest in harm reduction, including safe supply, safe injection/inhalation sites, and harm reduction outreach workers.

7. Establish a community-based and trauma-informed emergency service for people who have experienced gender-based violence.

8. Implement a civilian transportation safety service and better/safer road infrastructure for pedestrians, cyclists, and public transit.

9. Create a civilian conflict resolution service to replace policing of minor by-law infractions/noise complaints.

WE CAN DEFUND THE POLICE, DEMILITARIZE THE POLICE, REMOVE POLICE FROM OUR SCHOOLS, AND INVEST IN ALTERNATIVE APPROACHES TO CREATING SAFETY AND SECURITY FOR ALL OF US.

FIND OUT MORE AT DEFUNDPOLICE.ORG.