Defund Sheriffs: A Toolkit For Organizers

One month before Sandra Bland’s death, Lamar Alexander Johnson was pulled over in Baker, Louisiana for driving with tinted windows. Four days later, he was found hanged in his jail cell while in the custody of the East Baton Rouge Sheriff’s Office. His family organized the community to take to the streets to demand answers, but the sheriff blocked their every move. Lamar became one of the thousands of Black Americans who have lost their lives in the hands of sheriffs.

Today, people across the country are protesting against state violence — against murder, brutality and mass incarceration, overwhelmingly perpetrated against Black and brown people. The slogan on the signs may read "Defund the Police," but protesters have built a movement to defund policing — divesting from all systems that seek to control and punish Black and brown people through violence, including jails, police and prisons. It also means investing in systems that provide real and equitable access to safety and justice. The protests have focused at times on federal agents in Portland and state troopers in Nashville, on police departments in Minneapolis and Atlanta, and in communities small and large, they have focused on sheriffs.

This toolkit aims to support that movement. Sheriffs and their deputies are responsible for approximately 1,000 deaths in jail each year. They make more than 2 million arrests and shoot and kill more than 400 people. Sheriff’s offices are institutions with a legacy of racism, a track record of violence and limited oversight or accountability.

PART ONE focuses on how sheriffs fit into the law enforcement landscape and how defunding them is essential to building safer and more just communities.

PART TWO provides a step-by step guide for how to defund your local sheriff, including guidance for understanding budgets, identifying leverage points and defining an alternative vision. Because sheriff’s offices have enormous autonomy (often enshrined in state constitutions and occasionally, but rarely, checked by a county board), change starts with campaigns in your community. We hope this resource is helpful to anyone trying to start, join or support a defund sheriffs campaign.