Maher has always been Awful

[AZProgressive]

18. It was before the George Floyd protests

Mainstream outlets gave some of their demands some attention I only used publishing the op-Ed by NYT as an example but it has been around for years. Police budgets have exploded since the 70s.

Wiki

Black Lives Matter, the Movement for Black Lives, and other activists have used the phrase to call for police budget reductions and to delegate certain police responsibilities to other organizations.[9][10][11][12][13][14][15][16] In Black Reconstruction in America, first published in 1935, W. E. B. Du Bois wrote about "abolition-democracy", which advocated for the removal of institutions that were rooted in racist and repressive practices, including prisons, convict leasing, and white police forces. In the 1960s, activists such as Angela Davis advocated for the defunding or abolition of police departments.[17] The 2017 book The End of Policing by Alex S. Vitale has been called "a manual of sorts for the defund movement."[18]

https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Defund_the_police

To answer your question it depends on the department at the end of the day it is a local city budget issue. Sheriff Joe’s department when he was in charge is a good example.