NEW YORK (NewsNation Now) — After popularizing the term through much of 2020 after the murder of George Floyd, many major political leaders are now distancing themselves from the “defund the police” movement. 

In August, the issue was put to a vote in the Senate, which voted 99-0 in support of a budget resolution that would cut federal aid to any municipality that defunds the police.

Dr. Howard Henderson, founding director of the Center for Justice Research and author of “7 myths about “defunding the police” debunked” for the Brookings Institute, believes the research favors a “public health approach” to policing in the United States.

“We need to have the conversation about the type of policing that we need,” Henderson said. “Police need to be able to focus on violent crime, not focus on petty offenses. What we’re trying to do is raise attention to the fact that we have police spread way too thin.”

In his piece, Henderson writes that one of the myths of the movement is that its supporters want to abolish the police — something with which he disagrees.

He also acknowledged that the defund the police movement has lost steam and failed to gain meaningful political traction, but also said it’s part of a larger historical movement.

“We were trying to have the conversation because we realize that this is the first time in modern history we’ve had a conversation about police allocation of resources,” Henderson said.

He added that the allocation of resources should focus on communities and a public health approach, although it remains to be seen what that would specifically look like.