[bb2018]

I'm sure there is great data on police calls but from my experience with calling 911 social workers wouldn't really help. Earlier this year there was a homeless man waving a knife at pedestrians a few blocks from my house. I know this is a mental health issue and we need do do more for our homelesss - but I couldn't ask officers to deal with stuff like that on the regular with little or no protection.

I've also called 911 in the past when my house was burglarized, two men on a highway got into a fist fight after one's car hit the other, and once when a man was wandering into the middle of the highway trying to get himself run over. You could limit the number of guns but there are real issues that I think you'd want a well-equpied force for.

[dashundchen]

> Earlier this year there was a homeless man waving a knife at pedestrians a few blocks from my house.

That's sort of the point. That's a situation that may require both an armed officer and a social worker. it's not to say that there is no situation that would require it in a heavily armed nation like the US but frequently it does not. In fact many would say sending heavily armed officers where it does not require it can escalate things, and affects how these officers view and police their communities.

[arrrg]

In such mental health situations the social worker could be the commanding officer (essentially commanding police officers), relying on violence if deemed necessary.

The important point is that the structure of decision making inside the police is totally messed up. If all you have is a hammer, everything looks like a nail …

So the leadership has to come from somewhere else, basically.

One huge obstacle I still see is that US police basically completely gambled away trust inside the communities. They have to build up trust and are unwilling or unable to do that. That’s tragic. One way to change that would be to tip the balance way in favor of anyone not in the police, e.g. the police having to be right in fact when they apply violence to a problem (i.e. if they shoot the person they are suspecting of having a gun better have a gun or else they go to prison).

This would obviously lead to less effective policing, but that might be needed to lead to a change of strategy by the police. Because if you have to be right in fact you will act differently.

[illumin8]

> Earlier this year there was a homeless man waving a knife at pedestrians a few blocks from my house. I know this is a mental health issue and we need do do more for our homelesss - but I couldn't ask officers to deal with stuff like that on the regular with little or no protection.

This is actually a symptom of a much larger problem: the US defunded public mental health institutions years ago, and many people that are a danger to themselves and others became homeless. When you defund the very institutions designed to help these people, and militarize the police, you get the expected outcome: mentally ill people getting shot for "resisting arrest."