The defunding and certain events that occurred in which agents were involved is leading to a police crisis in small cities and towns in the country. According to a study carried out by Richard T. Boylan, an economics professor at Rice University, local governments in 521 cities and towns with a population between 1,000 and 200,000 residents dissolved their police departments from 1972 to 2017. Furthermore, in the last two years, 12 other cities and towns did the same.
There were two primary reasons that led them to do so. The first is the lack of funds to offer competitive salaries, something that harms smaller towns more. The second is closely related to some incidents involving police officers, such as the death of George Floyd in 2020. This has led to fewer candidates to fill job vacancies due to the criticism and attacks that police departments have suffered.
One of these cases is Goodhue, Minn. This summer, the AP recalls, Police Chief Josh Smith tried to recruit new officers for his small department. He wanted to retire and was forced to find a replacement.
He recommended to the city council that they improve salaries and benefits for officers, but they didn't, and Smith resigned. The same happened with the rest of the force. This caused Goodhue to have to close the town's police department at the end of August, as the National Police Association reported on X (formerly Twitter):
Goodhue, MN Police Dept. to City: We Quit https://t.co/6IvRqwkHs9
— National Police Association (@NatPoliceAssoc) August 22, 2023
Another city that suffered the same consequence was Morris, Minn. This town of just over 5,000 inhabitants saw its police department, which only had two officers, dissolved in 2022.
This also happened in two neighboring cities in Maine: Limestone and Van Buren.
In 2021, Woodford County in Illinois assumed responsibility for the town of Washburn, which has just over 1,000 residents, after its police department was disbanded. This fact did not concern Mayor Steve Forney too much: "You really can’t tell much of any difference. The sheriff’s department is very responsive. I like it. I was always one who was very hesitant to go this direction, but I feel it’s working for us."
