The discussion about defunding the police became a national discussion earlier last year. Many departments have lost funding, others are waiting on governmental decisions and some have seen no effect to their budgets yet. However, the discussion is still going strong and the actions taken now can have severe side effects.

Lon Bartel, VirTra’s Director of Training and Curriculum, spoke as a guest on Newsmax about this topic: “The issue of defunding means you have less training time. You have less money put in to hiring and selecting the best candidates out there. So when you start talking about defunding, you’re not improving performance. You’re not improving outcomes. You’re running the risk of setting those outcomes into a tailspin.”

It has become clear, through many incidents leading up to this discussion, that law enforcement need more training. Better training. But what many people fail to realize is that additional, more efficient training often results in a higher cost for departments. As such, these departments need to keep their original budgets—or be given more—to produce better equipped, more skilled officers.

Watch the entire clip below:

The discussion about defunding the police became a national discussion earlier last year. Many departments have lost funding, others are waiting on governmental decisions and some have seen no effect to their budgets yet. However, the discussion is still going strong and the actions taken now can have severe side effects.

Lon Bartel, VirTra’s Director of Training and Curriculum, spoke as a guest on Newsmax about this topic:

“The issue of defunding means you have less training time. You have less money put in to hiring and selecting the best candidates out there. So when you start talking about defunding, you’re not improving performance. You’re not improving outcomes. You’re running the risk of setting those outcomes into a tailspin.”

It has become clear, through many incidents leading up to this discussion, that law enforcement need more training. Better training.

But what many people fail to realize is that additional, more efficient training often results in a higher cost for departments. As such, these departments need to keep their original budgets—or be given more—to produce better equipped, more skilled officers.

Watch the entire clip below:

Many people who are upset with the actions of a select few police officers tend to push the narrative of defunding the police. By generalizing an entire group of people based on isolated incidents, communities nationwide could be destroyed by civil unrest.

After an unfortunate and tragic incident last year where an unarmed male’s neck was knelt on by police while bystander officers simply watched, policing tactics were reviewed nationwide. All around the country, police agencies and departments big and small revised their tactics and curriculum to incorporate more de-escalation training.

It is clear through this incident and others that law enforcement training needs to be more efficient, and this can mean higher costs. Defunding agencies can cause the opposite to happen – the advanced training officers undoubtedly need cannot exist without city/county/state funding.

Say a police department runs out of money. What happens?

• Police officers quit, leaving the agency/department heavily short-staffed.
• Members of law enforcement who stay despite the lack of funding often work extensive overtime hours on little to no sleep.
• Officers who stay on the force experience a drop in morale.
• Due to the lack of officers on staff and the money to support them, 911 calls may not result in an immediate police response – and could even go unanswered altogether.

While it is highly upsetting to hear of the instances when a citizen is unjustly killed, do not fall for the temptation to chant “defund the police.” These are times when the police need more funding to supply better, more realistic training. Defunding and disbanding departments will only guarantee an increase in crime and a decrease in police response to emergencies.

High performance requires hiring and retaining the right people and training them to exceptional levels. This requires the right training and higher standards, not eliminating them completely by not supplying them with funds.

Recently, VirTra’s Director of Training and Curriculum discussed this in detail in a Newsmax interview with other professionals. Watch the Newsmax special here.