As crimes rise, battles rage on about police funding

President Joe Biden said that funding is the answer to issues in the U.S. on policing. It has thrown police budgets back into the spotlight.

When President Joe Biden said "the answer" to nationwide crime surges was to fund police, he reignited intense debate on defunding police departments.

"The answer," Biden said in his State of the Union speech on March 1, "is not to defund the police. The answer is to fund the police. Fund them with resources and training they need to protect our communities."

With that, more are taking deeper looks into whether funding can be effective at lowering crime rates. But some advocates who spoke with ABC News continue to wonder whether defunding police departments and shifting monies to efforts like mental health service and youth programs is the ideal, multi-pronged approach to combating rising crime.

Across the country, major cities are contending with disturbing increases in crime rates.