Organizers called for an end to the use of paid administrative leave for officers under investigation, a reduction in the size of the police force, and other spending cuts. But the committee did not deliberate on specific changes to the budget.
“You have — time and time again — community telling you ‘we are not safe with the police,’” said Vanessa Flores-Maldonado, co-director of the Providence Youth Student Movement. She urged the council to listen to community members, but said organizers need time to develop a specific plan for redirecting the money.
“Please wait for the community to get our demands together and to figure out what we want to invest it in instead. Because body cams, webinars, seminars aren’t gonna make a difference if the history of this institution was based on racism, based on slavery, based on antiblackness.”
Alexis Morales, an organizer with Direct Action for Rights and Equality shared his own memories of police brutality.
“The trauma that it’s caused in our community– I’ve seen that,” Morales reflected. “So with that said I think defunding the police will be a start to healing the pain that our communities have gone through.”
Over the past week, the city has received over 2,000 letters urging the city council to cut funding for the police department.
During the meeting, council members asked Police Chief Hugh Clements and Public Safety Commissioner Steven Pare about the workings of the police department, including disciplinary procedures, training, and the role of school resource officers.
“150,000 times a year, somebody from the community calls the Providence Police for help,” Clements said, arguing that cutting police funding would make the city less safe. “Certainly we make mistakes, but by and large we hold our people accountable, and we do a damn good job.”
He added that Providence has already implemented some of the reforms that protesters are calling for in other cities across the country, including ending the use of warning shots, banning choke-holds, and clarifying an officer’s duty to intervene if a colleague is using excessive force.
Council members questioned Clements on how officers are held accountable. And multiple councilors expressed concern with the state’s Law Enforcement Officer’s Bill of Rights, which blocks a police chief from firing an officer accused of a crime.
“If you have a couple of bad apples, you get rid of the bad apples, you don’t cut down the whole tree,” commented Mike Imondi, president of the city’s police union. “But Providence, I would say, has a 95 to 97% success rate as far as police officers acting in the right manner, without heavy-handedness.”
City Council President Sabina Matos cut in, “But in the work that you do, that two percent could mean someone’s life, so that’s why we’re having this conversation.”
Steps away from city hall, a few hundred people gathered in support of defunding the police department. Demonstrators stood in Burnside park, wearing masks and holding signs, as they listened to speakers for more than two hours in the early evening light.
It was the third large gathering organized in the capital city in two weeks, and as protests over police conduct in Rhode Island continue, concrete demands are beginning to coalesce.
“It starts with defunding the police,” said Providence resident Yojaida Heredia, who was also a scheduled speaker. Heredia wants money from the police department diverted into social programs in the city.
“There are so many people without housing, there’s not enough affordable housing, enough money for a public transportation system,” said Heredia. “So these certain areas of our city are being looked over, while the police get so much money.”
“And hopefully, in an ideal system, we would not have police.” Heredia added. Other cities across the country are just beginning to wrestle with the idea of cutting police funds, though what those cuts will look like in Providence is unclear. 
Candace Hazard, of South Kingstown, attended the protest in Providence, and says she thinks law enforcement does have a place in society, but must be dramatically changed.
“Dismantle, disarm and reform,” Hazard said. “Police funding has skyrocketed. Social services have just plummeted. People are suffering and we need help.”
At least nine Rhode Island cities and towns have received letters or phone calls, demanding they shift funding from the police department into other social services.
