We Talked to More Than 50 Democratic Officials. Almost All Want to Divert Police Funding.

“Governments are going to have to look at how they can reallocate money,” said Harry Reid, the former Senate majority leader. “Of course it’s a good idea if we have more social services rather than police because police are to be our guardians rather than warriors. There are a lot of things we’d rather have a sociologist work through rather than a guy with a gun and a holster.”

The issue could prove delicate for Mr. Biden as he works to unite the party’s disparate factions — including a still-skeptical progressive wing — into a coalition that can defeat President Trump in November, while rebutting the president’s strategy of attacking Democrats as weak on “law and order.” There is clear tension not only between Mr. Biden and the party’s base, but between the moderate voters Mr. Biden needs to win the general election and the more liberal voters who populate Democratic primaries.

A New York Times and Siena College national poll released this week shed light on the diverging viewpoints. It found 63 percent of registered voters oppose spending less money on the police. But among Mr. Biden’s supporters, 55 percent favor reducing the amount of resources spent on law enforcement.

Stacey Walker, a county supervisor from Cedar Rapids, Iowa, whom Mr. Sanders appointed to the criminal justice task force, supports the movement to defund police departments and has been pushing the Biden-Sanders task force toward more sweeping proposals. He suggested that Mr. Biden had not yet caught up to the energy and sentiment that is currently motivating many in the party.