That's the new battle cry of the left....
Should we defund/abolish the police?
Let's put it this way. No.
Should we voluntarily shift the supply of law enforcement resources downwards and expect a similar level of quality?
Would that work in most other cases? reducing funds to an area and expect an increase or even stabilization of quality of work?
Maybe I'm naive but I just don't think so.
We need better training, better legislative procedures, mandatory reviews of current law enforcement policy region by region, better mental health and social support systems, better economic conditions for the lowest 20% of earners and a whole bunch of other things. This would realistically cost some multiple of a billion per year to do if not more.
reducing funds to police creates a resource crunch for already a miserably preparred police force.
What if we mandated an extra year of schooling teaching only critical thinking skills whatever it costs? what would the downstream effects of a x% increase in general quality of thought?
None of these problems get solved 1 dimensionally. Imagine a world with 0 police? what about 50% of people as police? Some middle point is ideal.
When has a voluntary decrease in resources ever led to an increase in quality before?