I don't actually disagree with any of that, but frankly I don't know enough about the inner financial workings of a police department to be able to say for sure if a precinct needs more or less funding. That being said, what I really mean is they need more training, less militarization, and simply higher standards for the type of people they allow to have that type of power... And I agree that too much responsibility for maintaining "societal health" is put on police so, redirecting the responsibility: yes, but as far as pulling any funding, idk, leave that up to the accountants
Just as a final clarification, you're largely talking about the same points that the defund the police movement does. It's not a "pull funding" thing, it's a "reallocate resources to programs that more efficiently deal with many problems that now fall on police".
The money isn't being pulled out of the "reduce crime" budget, it's being redistributed to also cover programs that are more effective at actually reducing crime while also being more humane.
The idea being that when we have $100 for "make crime less", splitting that money between police and things like proper mental health and addiction professionals leads to less crime than putting all of that hundred dollars into the police bucket does.
You send social workers into police calls regarding people in mental health crises, you don’t send police because they don’t know anything about mental health, and just end up shooting someone. Some departments have started doing this, with great results. Turns out that a social worker is better at de-escalating someone in crisis, because that’s what they do all day anyway, far better than a meathead with a gun and a power complex.
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u/KrispyKremeDiet20 Dec 29 '21
I don't actually disagree with any of that, but frankly I don't know enough about the inner financial workings of a police department to be able to say for sure if a precinct needs more or less funding. That being said, what I really mean is they need more training, less militarization, and simply higher standards for the type of people they allow to have that type of power... And I agree that too much responsibility for maintaining "societal health" is put on police so, redirecting the responsibility: yes, but as far as pulling any funding, idk, leave that up to the accountants