NEW KFILE looking at James Talarico’s record on policing in 2020. Talarico told a youth group then calling for defunding police that it was "rich" that "defund the police" was "off limits" in political debate when Texas had spent decades defunding public schools and health services. Said, "Our system of policing is deeply broken. We must replace it with something new and something better," and asked about instead sending "highly-trained crisis interventionists," some for some emergencies. In June 2020, he donated $2,500 to the Austin Justice Coalition, a group calling for defunding police, a donation he later defended. He also criticized Gov. Abbott's proposal to cut revenue to cities like Austin over local decisions to reduce police funding. In 2022, Talarico said that if the country took "just half of what we spent on wars, prisons, and policing" and spent it on education, health care, and jobs, "we could make prisons obsolete." Talarico's campaign says he "did not call for and does not support defunding the police" and has voted to send billions of dollars to local law enforcement. cnn.com/2026/10/05/politics/…