Following George Floyd's death, multiple community organizations, activists, and—notably—3 members of the Minneapolis city council—are calling to 'defund the police'.

This page discusses what defunding the police means, defunding campaigns in several cities, as well as arguments in favor of defunding the police. The bottom also has some statistics on police department funding across the US.

TL;DR

• Minneapolis and Los Angeles (as well as other cities) have campaigns to reduce funding for the police and direct those resources to other programs, primarily social services. The Minneapolis campaign, Defund MPD, is supported by Reclaim the Block and Black Visions, who have received a surge of donations in the wake of George Floyd's death at the hands of a Minneapolis police officer.
• Defunding the police (or rather: divesting some funds from policing to invest elsewhere) can reduce crime and save money for cities

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Defunding campaigns

In Minneapolis, MN

In the wake of George Floyd's death at the hands of a Minneapolis police officer, organizations such as Reclaim the Block and Black Visions have been circulating a petition to defund the Minneapolis police: bit.ly/DEFUNDMPD

Specifically, the petition asks that the city:

1. To never again vote to increase police funding or to increase the police department's budget.
2. To propose and vote for a $45 million cut from MPD's budget as the City responds to projected COVID-19 shortfalls.
3. To protect and expand current investment in community-led health and safety strategies, instead of investing in police.
4. To do everything in my power to compel MPD and all law enforcement agencies to immediately cease enacting violence on community members.

To be clear, this proposal is not asking the city to wholly defund and disband the police department. It is closer to a divest-invest strategy. From the petition:

As we’re making reforms, as we’re pushing policy changes, as we’re overseeing shifts in practice, we [must] pay special attention to how money is being spent. We demand a divestment from the systems that harm our communities, like the criminal legal system, like policing regimes, like the court system—and demand that money that’s currently being spent, that’s being poured into those systems with no accountability, be moved instead to community-based alternative systems that support our people, that feed our people, that ensure we have jobs, and housing—the things we need to take care of ourselves and our communities.

…Invest/divest is meant not just to address the symptoms…but instead to say “Actually, how do we start to really think about how we reallocate power and resources back to our safety, back to our health, in ways that help us thrive, and don’t criminalize or dehumanize us.”

In Los Angeles, CA

Even prior to George Floyd's death, multiple activist groups, including Black Lives Matter LA, had prepared a 'People's Budget' (created through a resident survey and participatory budgeting process) to decrease funding to the LAPD.