As a Senator in the 1990’s, Biden was known to be tough on crime, and Adams, a former NYPD captain, has been vocal about his support for police and the criminal justice system. They both find their long-held positions on policing and crime back in the Democratic mainstream, as some mayors and elected officials have shifted their stance on crime and the “defund the police” movement over the past several months.

During his meeting with Adams, Biden expressed his opposition to defunding the police as he said, “the answer is not the defund the police, it’s to give you the tools, the training, the funding, to be partners [and] to be protectors.”

However, Biden and Adams’ views on policing were not at the forefront of the conversation during Biden’s 2020 presidential campaign. On the campaign trail, Biden voiced his opposition to defunding the police but did note that some funding could be used in other areas such as social services and mental health counseling, according to CNN.

Following the police killing of George Floyd, a Black man, numerous Democratic leaders embraced the “defund the police” slogan, as protesters called on elected officials to redirect funds away from police and the criminal justice system and instead use them for social services.

In response to the protests across the nation, Democratic mayors, such as San Francisco’s London Breed, Oakland’s Libby Schaaf and even Adams’ predecessor, Bill de Blasio, pledged to reduce police budgets and redirect funding to other areas.

Since Floyd’s death and a summer filled with protests across the nation, much has changed and dozens of cities are grappling with a rise in violent crime. A poll conducted this past summer found that a majority of voters (52 percent) said violent crime was a “major crisis” in the U.S. The poll, conducted by Global Strategy Group, also found that 70 percent of Black voters agreed that it was a major crisis.

While Biden and Adams have openly voiced their support for a more traditional approach to policing and the criminal justice system, several Democratic leaders have made politically awkward u-turns on the subject.

Following the death of Floyd, Breed and Schaaf changed their stances on policing as they grappled with a rise in crime. Last summer, Breed vowed to redirect $120 million away from the city’s police department but in December, she made an emergency request to provide the department with more funding and said that the city needed to be “more aggressive with law enforcement,” according to Bloomberg City Lab. Schaff said in November that she planned to reverse cuts to the city’s police department budget and instead wanted to increase policing amid a rise in crime, according to NBC Bay Area.

In November, Newsweek previously reported that voters in Minneapolis, where Floyd was killed, rejected a proposal that would have replaced the city’s police department with a new Department of Public Safety. The decision by voters in the city came as crimes, such as robberies and assaults, increased since the summer.

A similar situation occurred in Portland, according to PBS, when the city’s Mayor Ted Wheeler previously cut funding to the police department, but in November, the city passed a budget proposal that increased funding to police by $5.2 million.

Chicago Democratic Mayor Lightfoot has faced calls from activists to cut funding to the police, but she has remained vocal on her stance against doing so. According to WBBM-TV in Chicago, Lightfoot’s 2021 budget proposal sought to cut $59 million from the city’s police department. However, she said that the cut would be achieved by not hiring more officers to fill vacant positions.

“More can and must be done that requires additional resources and help from our federal partners,” she said at a press conference in December. “CPD always needs and works with partners at all levels.”

Lightfoot has been vocal about her overall opposition to defunding the police. “I’ve been very clear that I do not support defunding the police,” she said in October. She also said that she would never yield" to those who call for defunding the police.

In a statement sent to Newsweek, a spokesperson for Lightfoot’s office said, “CPD did eliminate vacancies in the 2021 Budget along with every other Department in the City, which in turn reduced their budget.”

Biden, on Thursday, said, “police need to treat everyone with respect and dignity, that’s why I called on Congress to pass a budget later this year that provides cities like New York and others with an additional $300 million for community policing.”

Prior to his meeting with Biden, Adams made similar comments during a conversation with MSNBC Reports, where he said that the “defund the police” movement “doesn’t work.”

“It’s the wrong bumper sticker,” Adams said.

New York Democratic Representative Ritchie Torres also spoke with MSNBC on February 3, 2022, and said “I agree with the mayor…The defund police movement is dead in New York City and good riddance.”

“Any elected official who’s advocating for the abolition and or even the defunding of police is out of touch with reality and should not be taken seriously,” Torres added.

Updated 2/3/22, 4:10 p.m. ET: This story has been updated to include a statement from a spokesperson for Lightfoot’s office.