Our communities have been calling to defund the police for decades. But despite a wealth of research, lived experiences, and successful examples of divestment from police, our local government continues to increase the police budget while cutting community services.

Oumar talks to Batul Gulamhusein about the complicity of our municipal politicians in police violence and how we should approach next year’s election and the future beyond that. How can we elect leaders who we actually trust? How are we investing in the community mechanisms of care? And if we’re not calling the police, who are we calling?