June 10, 2020

Dear Mayor Shon Harris,

As we watch this culturally diverse and beautiful country divide daily with protesting and demand for change, it seems rash decisions are being made too quickly all stemming from emotion and not logic. At this critical time in our history there is a “Defund The Police” Movement that is sweeping our nation like wildfire and it seems that some individuals here in our community have jumped on that bandwagon.

We would like to take this opportunity to express first what it means to “defund the police” then how that effects our communities.

On the surface, the call for defunding the police means to redistribute their funds to areas such as education and healthcare. However, our community is rich in resources such as low-income housing, homeless shelters, food banks, The Salvation Army, the local Health Department which is full of education, the Health and Human Services Department and the many churches that are always helping out those in need, and many others. Defunding the police will, in the end, reduce our police force, cause low morale within our police department, and even increase potential fear within our police department and possibly militarize them and even potentially cause fear within our community due to lack of police presence. Defunding the police department won’t stop abuse, it will just make the community less safe by making it more vulnerable to violence.

By defunding the police, you will expose your community to increased crime, higher emotional reactions and will ultimately cause more harm than good.

Our police officers and sheriff deputies are on the front line of defense and risk their lives daily on the job protecting our community. Defunding the police and targeting an entire police organization responsible for the actions of a few specific officers is wrong, immoral and irresponsible. Demonizing an entire profession is dangerous and quite frankly, prejudice and only perpetuates animosity.

The areas in the nation that have already lost large portions of their police force due to the defunding and/or dismantling of the police and/or loss of police lives have already seen an exponential increase in crime.

Yuba City has never been an area of high crime and the YCPD has always had an exceptional record and report with the community. Defunding the YCPD and/or the Sutter County Sheriff Department to appease the few would be detrimental to the many in our community and we implore you to consider holding off on such an idea during this time.

Many warm regards,

Concerned Yuba City Residents