[captions Copyright National cable satellite corp. 2020] [captioning performed by the national captioning institute, which is responsible for its caption content and accuracy. Visit ncicap. Org] coming up shortly, more light covers from capitol hill with the House Administration election subcommittee meeting about Voting Rights and elections during the covid19 pandemic. Hearing is after the tuesday primaries with troubles and voting in a number of locations in georgia in particular. Among the witnesses testifying today will be the secretary of state for louisiana. It should get underway shortly and we will take you there live when it happens but until then, part of todays washington journal. Ur next guest of the morning is alex vitale, a sociology professor and the author of the book the end of policing. Thank you for joining us. Guest good morning, pedro. Narrator could you give the audience of what your view of what the police should be in Current Society . Guest i think it is not so much about what the police should be, it is what we should be doing instead of policing in as many situations as possible. The problem is we have come to over rely on police to solve every social problem under the sun. It puts police in this untenable position where they are expected to be social workers, youth counselors, Mental Health experts,s, and housing and they cant do all of those things. To Defund Police isnt just about throwing out police. Itabout throwing is about thinking of why we give these problems to police and put money back into initiatives that would lead them safer. Host what would lead you to believe that police do things outside of the purview of actually policing, which you describe . Guest up to a quarter of all witheople interacting police have a Mental Health crisis. They getle call 911, an Armed Police Response and they are not equipped to manage those calls as well as they should be managed. That is one example. We are using police in school to deal with disciplinary issues that is resulting in kids under 10 years old being put in handcuffs. In new york city, we have more nypd personnel assigned at city schools than all counselors and social workers combined. Those are just misplaced priorities. Narrator you mentioned defund the Police Movement that has been in the news for the last couple days. Can you specify what you think that means . Theres a lot of definitions going around, as you know. Guest i dont think anybody planned to have a movement called defund the police or defund the police, but there has been a movement on the ground, even before the events in minneapolis, to get communities to reshift their funding priorities. People use language like divest from police, invest in communities, or build communities, or justice reinvestment, but all of it requires explanation and does not fit easily on a cardboard sign. What people are talking about is going in and looking closely at city budgets, and identifying spending that goes to police initiatives that would be better handled in the community. Also, for some people, it means they would prefer to live in a world that does not require people with guns to maintain safety and order. I would like to live in a world like that as well. No one is talking about a situation where there is some magic switch and, prove, tomorrow there are no police. Nosuch switch exists and city council will zero out the Police Budget in the next year. There is intentional fear mongering out there to misrepresent what this movement is about to undermined its goals. Host is there a model in your mind of the Police Department in the United States when it comes to your idea police . Guest there are lots of examples of places doing some part of it. In eugene, oregon, they dont use police to go on Mental Health calls. People dealing with a crisis while homeless or involving substance abuse. Nonprofit clinicians. And results have been good. Parts of nevada, it is not perfect, but it reduces harm for sex workers and improves Public Health outcomes. Internationally, places like portugal and europe have decriminalized all drugs. They disband the narcotics unit, get the people out of the drug business, and turn it to Public Health officials. Europe, theyve never heard of school policing. They think we are crazy that we fill our schools with police. They have high quality counselors, afterschool programs, and they dont criminalize their children. There are a lot of examples of how to do that. My book has hundreds of footnotes with examples of studies and reports that show what we could be doing instead. Host the end of policing, is the book we are referencing. Here to take your calls. If you want to ask him questions, it is 202 7488001 for republicans. Democrats are 202 7488000. Independents are 202 7488002. If you want to tax us, you can do it at text us, you can do a debt 202 7488003. If you are Law Enforcement and you want to give us a call, 202 7488003 that you can call there too. We will take you live now to a virtual hearing on capitol hill of the election subcommittee on Voting Rights during the covid19 pandemic, live coverage here on cspan. We know that covid19 has altered the daily lives of all america. It has impacted our health, how we work, how we engage in our communities and how we vote. It is also impacted how we are holding todays hearing. People are putting themselves at risk every day from doctors and nurses to first responders, postal workers and many others including poll