Defunding the police department is a not good idea and could cost lives, said Birmingham Police Department (BPD) Chief Patrick D. Smith in an interview on Tuesday.

“What I mean by [re-funded] is to make sure there is an allocation within the police department … to ensure that police officers are trained in de-escalation, [as well as to recognize] implicit bias [and] deal with people in sensitive matters,” Smith said.

Some activists are calling for the defunding of police departments, so public money earmarked for the police can be redirected to other areas in the community.

“That idea may cause other people to lose their lives as we experiment with this notion of defunding the police department,” Smith said.

“Several officers in our department were very disturbed by what they saw,” Smith said of the video showing Minneapolis police officer Derek Chauvin holding Floyd on the ground by pressing his knee into the man’s neck for 8 minutes and 46 seconds, ignoring Floyd’s dying pleas of “I can’t breathe.”