notated Bibliography
Topic- How does uncontrolled funding for police officers affect the lives of citizens.?
Outrageous funding for the police force was always a curious topic for me. Speaking from personal experience, I have seen on multiple occasions that the majority of the police force are not doing their job. There is always news everywhere about police brutality and since it’s the age of phones, videos travel faster than anything else. As a person of color, it concerns me and that’s why this topic caught my interest. Another thing that caught my attention was its mention during the BLM protests. That made me think if all that money could be spent in better venues which would help a lot of people, especially schools and hospitals where the funding is really low.
During my research, I expect to find them about the excess funding and where it all goes. I also want to be able to find solutions as I go along. I also expect to find whether we need more money for police training or more money to ensure our safety. As I do my research,
I could find out that what I had previously hypothesized, could be wrong and not be factual. In that case, I will have an open mind. I will change my opinion towards it and make sure people who think like me change their mindset. I will make sure that I educate everyone on this “topic” and hopefully, we are all on the same page. This research question is not intended to be biased. This research question was formed under the general opinion about excess funding. This research is supposed to help clear the conflict and give everyone a final answer.
During my research, I will find different types of genres in different papers. There are fifteen different types of genres. Out of all those genres, the ones that will help me the most could be Data Reports and Research Reports. These two are most important because the two main components of my research are data and research from different groups. The data will help me see how much money is getting funded and how much everyone is receiving and the research report will help me analyze the data I will be looking at. One more type of component I might find useful will be blogging since it also lets me know about people’s opinions about how they feel.
Thesis Statement-Outrageous funding for the police force affects the lives of the citizens.
Source Entries:
Auxier, Richard C. “What Police Spending Data Can (and Cannot) Explain amid Calls to Defund the Police.” Urban Institute, 9 June 2020, https://www.urban.org/urban-wire/what-police-spending-data-can-and-cannot-explain-amid-calls-defund-police
This report belongs to the data report genre. The article includes a bunch of data charts that holds information on different questions. The first one is how much the community is spending on police. It also talks about how police spending has changed over time and what drives this change. As the author said, “But police spending reflects what communities pay in exchange for public safety—an exchange that does not keep all communities safe. At the least, spending data can help advocates and policymakers understand reforms’ fiscal opportunities and parameters.” This is relevant to my paper because it discusses the main issue of excess funding and what actions need to be taken to solve it.
Hayes, Tara O’Neill. “Assessing Calls to Defund the Police: Police Budgets and Employment Levels.” AAF, 30 Sept. 2020, https://www.americanactionforum.org/research/assessing-calls-to-defund-the-police-police-budgets-and-employment-levels/
This report belongs to the research report genre. The article includes analyzation of data which helps us break it down. What’s different about it from the first article is that it goes in-depth as to how the funding affects other public services. It also talks about how 97% of the funding is spent on operational expenses, including salaries and benefits, and how reducing the funding will result in unemployment within the force. Hayes states, “Finally, advocates argue that greater investment in community needs, including education, health care, economic development, and youth activities, will reduce crime and the need for police in the first place.” This article is relevant to my research because it shows that advocates are showing valid reasons as to why reallocating the money is so important for the society as a whole as it will educate and take care of all we and no one needs to go to extreme measures to fulfill their needs, thus decreasing the need of police forces.
Ray, Rashawn. “What Does ‘Defund the Police’ Mean and Does It Have Merit?” Brookings, Brookings, 3 May 2021, https://www.brookings.edu/blog/fixgov/2020/06/19/what-does-defund-the-police-mean-and-does-it-have-merit/
This report belongs to the blog genre. The article talks more about how excess funding is affecting public services. It talks about how the education system is not receiving enough funds and cannot provide enough for the students and keep them interested in education. Putting more police on the streets won’t help the situation either. Ray states, “One consistent finding in the social science literature is that if we want to reduce crime, education equity and the establishment of a working infrastructure is the best approach.” This document is relevant to my research because it talks about how reallocating the money to other sections of the government would help the citizens and reduce crime rates. The funding will be used to create a working infrastructure that would help people live a normal life and it would also help tackle the homeless issue in their respective states.
CNBC. YouTube, YouTube, 24 June 2020, https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=3iWYbtccLuQ&ab_channel=CNBC. Accessed 14 Nov. 2021.
This video belongs to the critique genre. The video shows different charts to show how the spending has increased by 200%. It shows the major cities with Los Angeles, New York City, and Chicago who spend the most for their police force. They also take more than a quarter of their city funding. The video also explains defunding the police and how the movement is not about abolishing the police but helping everyone perfectly allocate the money wherever it’s needed and also trying to spend the excess on different public services. Rashawn ray states in the video that the funds shouldn’t just be used by one department, but rather find which services need more or fewer funds and reallocate the money accordingly. This video is helpful for my research because it is showing everyone how funding the police excessively are hurting the community and how reallocating money would mean everyone would get what they need and it would help us grow as a society which is the main point of my topic.
USAFacts. “Police Departments, Funding, Stats & Data.” USAFacts, USAFacts, 28 Apr. 2021, https://usafacts.org/articles/police-departments-explained/
The article belongs editorial genre. This article is really interesting because it explains the police department in the United States. It tells us how many police officers are there and the total number of departments. It also tells us about how much money is allocated towards the police department. it goes into how much the local police gets out of that fund too. This article is relevant to my research because it backs up the data in the other sources of this annotated bibliography. The data can help analyze the information found and be used accordingly to get an accurate answer.
Conclusion:
In conclusion, the excess funding is affecting the citizens and the communities. Due to excess funding, the other parts of the government, which are built to take care of its citizens, are not financially strong enough to keep supporting them. That’s why allocating money to the right sectors is so important. Before my research, I was expecting to find answers about how the excess funding really hurt the general population and after my research, I can finally say that my Thesis was true. More research is needed on this topic by others to find the perfect solution to this problem. Reallocating the funds doesn’t necessarily mean abolishing the police. It means
