Jillian Johnson and Megan Green

Opinion contributors

Long before either of us took office, we saw how certain communities across the country were overpoliced, hypercriminalized and overincarcerated.

And this has only gotten worse as the Trump administration has rolled back oversight and regulations on police accountability and transparency, while supporting the militarization of law enforcement and unleashing a brutal mass deportation machine on immigrant communities.

A new investigation released last month by the Center for Popular Democracy and Local Progress — an organization headed by local elected officials, including us, who are working to implement national social justice reform — shows that none of our cities is properly holding police accountable or implementing reforms. And the evaluation, we fear, points to a larger, nationwide trend.

Of the 12 major cities that were evaluated, all still need significant improvements on police policies that regulate the use of force, provide strong independent oversight and prevent federal immigration enforcement from co-opting local law enforcement.

At the same time that police departments have failed to significantly improve, a large and growing amount of local budgets have been spent on policing and corrections, according to the investigation. This is a shocking but predictable trend.

Over the past decade, we’ve seen localities and states nationwide drastically increase spending on policing and corrections, at the expense of investments in other programs and government services.

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This confirms what we instinctively know to be true: The system's dysfunction is the result of decades of public policy and budgetary decisions that have criminalized, marginalized and disinvested from black and brown communities.

Durham, North Carolina, is one of the poorest performing cities in the country when it comes to use of force, attaining the lowest possible scores in four out of the seven use-of-force categories evaluated in the Local Progress study. Officers weren't required to intervene in excessive use-of-force cases, nor were they required to publicly report them.

On the other hand, spending on police is one of the largest parts of the city's overall budget. Last year, Durham dedicated 13% of it to cops and corrections, while giving less than 3% to jobs and youth programs.

Minneapolis' law enforcement similarly struggled when it came to use of force, scoring low on public reporting and accountability. But police took more than a third of the city's general fund in 2019. Less than 1% went to jobs and youth programs.

This truth is enraging and overwhelming. It is also a mandate for action.

Cities all across the country have recently won policy victories.

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Council members in Washington, D.C., further restricted the city's already limited cooperation with Immigration and Customs Enforcement “detainer requests,” a move that may combat one of the areas where the city needs improvement. While Washington passed several study measures related to immigration, the city ranked low on training — specifically on immigrant rights in local jails.

And despite pushback, last year, elected officials in Durham took the $1.2 million that was supposed to be used to hire 18 additional officers and used it to raise wages for part-time city workers instead. And in Minneapolis, $1 million that would have funded cops was instead used for violence prevention last year.

These efforts, while a step in the right direction, are long overdue.

Police reform has sometimes been known as the third rail in local politics — too controversial to touch. But now, more than ever, local elected officials must step up to protect civil liberties and lead on uplifting communities instead of criminalizing them.

In St. Louis, Missouri, members of the Board of Aldermen, in partnership with community groups, are pushing for the closure of their medium-security jail, known as the workhouse, and reallocation the $16 million per year spent on the outdated facility into violence prevention.

If the push goes through, it would mean monumental change for the city, which has allocated 20% of its 2019 budget on police and corrections and significantly less on community programs.

Real, transformative change is possible with the right tools and an unwavering commitment from elected officials.

Public safety comes when communities have dignified and affordable homes, access to quality education, good health care, reliable transportation and stable jobs that provide a living wage.

The changes we make at the local and state level can translate to change across the country.

Jillian Johnson is the mayor pro tempore of Durham, North Carolina. Megan Green is the Ward 15 alderwoman in St. Louis, Missouri.