Jim Bob
RIP RJ
An unbiased thorough examination of police spending is long overdue-although it is not the only agency or department that needs this. (See $ supposedly spent for hammers or toilets in some defence budgets) Since the rich already have their body guards or" posses" they will not be the most affected by this. Spending money on prevention is a great idea if folks can agree on how to do it--throwing money at social issues while in principle a worthwhile consideration will depend on what issues, what remedies and who is in charge of the spending. Removing police from dealing with social ills of drug induced situations, the mentally disturbed, and tense domestic situations--a large part of their mandate it seems-will put more medically trained personnel and/or social workers into the often danger filled situations that police are routinely called to. I assume those responding will not require police aid in addition to their own professional presence. Whether this attempt at triaging possible felonious events will work will be a matter of discovery. Certainly there is no need for military grade weapons for every policing force but to call to disarm police because that is the case in UK or Japan for example fails to note that those countries do not for example allow civilians to walk around freely carrying loaded guns. None of the foregoing is to suggest that budget review and possible budget cutting need not be examined. But it is not as simplistic as some propose.
Why Are the Police in Charge of Road Safety? - Marginal REVOLUTION
This article really made me think about ways that policing can evolve in the future to reduce the number of interactions with the citizenry that ends in violence towards either party.
Having fewer police officers carrying sidearms and having things set up where we don't default to armed police officers responding to situations that don't require an armed response.
For instance, send a social worker to a report of rape and not armed officers who are more likely to intimidate the victim.