‘Defund the Police’ Should Include Federal Cops Too

Protesters demanding policing reforms are understandably focused on increasing accountability and slashing police budgets at the state and local levels.

But the call to “defund the police” should not ignore the large and growing presence (and expense) of federal law enforcement in recent decades—and would-be reformers should be careful not to hand-over more power to federal agencies that will be more difficult to hold accountable than local departments.

Federal police spending has skyrocketed since the 1980s, notes Chris Edwards, director of tax policy studies for the Cato Institute, a libertarian think tank. The federal government’s police budget includes includes grants