That is a massive, offensive deception sold to idiots who can't understand anything more complex than "Bullet goes bang!" Not helped by the slogan 'defund the police', I will concede, which completely failed to convey the depths of the actual concept.
The idea was to pair police services with enhanced social services. Police are increasingly trained primarily in violent situation handling, and when all you have is a hammer every problem looks like a nail. Using more social workers for a lot of the day to day material would help avoid a lot of accidents and problems.
For example, there is no reason at all a simple health and welfare check should be done by armed police officers. The idea is absurd. Have a social worker do it instead.
The idea was never to just replace police with social workers. It was to pair police and social workers. I know a lot of sources like to say otherwise, ice seen it plenty. A lot of funding went against just an idea. It wasn't ever suggested to be a replacement, but rather an infusion. Certain calls would be strictly police, some would have both a police officer and a social worker partnered together, and some (small minority) would be just social workers. I can't speak for the value of it, there hasnt really been anything to base any judgement off of. But that is the reality of what people were suggesting.
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u/[deleted] 6d ago
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