This is what needs to happen to all police departments. Slow reform won't work. What police in America do is wrong at its core. We don't need thousands of armed people roaming the streets looking for crime. Only 5% of arrests involve violence. Being a cop isn't a dangerous job, it isn't even in the top 10 deadliest jobs in America. Even when only looking at death by violence, cops aren't the most likely to die on the job (taxi/limo drivers are). We need people solving actual problems, not people trained to fear the public while also being armed armed with guns.

Some examples of why police departments should be dissolved and something new created:

Ever day when I walk to work (pre-COVID) I pass the same two police officers. They walk along the same stretch of sidewalk waking up homeless people. Ever day the walk up the same homeless people, while being armed with firearms and wearing bulletproof vests. They aren't solving a problem. The people they wake up are still homeless the next day. If instead San Francisco had a dedicated homeless department that solved end-to-end problems, they could actually solve problems. They could wake up the homeless people and talk to them, understand the root problems, and work to come up with solutions to the underlying causes of homelessness. While also finding compassionate short term help for them.

Another example is from couple days ago, when the Alameda police arrested a man, throw him to the ground and handcuffing him -- for dancing in the street outside his home[1]. Someone called called the police because they thought he might be drunk or have mental problems. But because it was police that responded, instead of community focused mental health professionals, they arrested him and used excessive force. That is when police do.

This morning I saw and recorded[2] a white women sitting on the ground have two AR-15 style rifles, two handguns, and a shotgun pointed at her. That is routine level excessive force used by cops in America. It is the type of force that escalates to killings when the white women is replaced with a black man.

At the same time the police don't investigate actual crimes. Every year tens of thousand of cars are broken into in San Francisco, and the police do nothing about it.

Here is what I want:

- No armed police officers on the street.

- Dedicated non-police departments to solve common problems, having end-to-end responsibility, with real solutions. Homeless, mental health, whatever is a big enough problem to have a dedicated departments.

- Investigators that investigate and solve crimes that impact people. They don't go looking for crime. They don't carry guns. They don't roam the streets.

- Armed response teams at stations and sub-stations. Like fire departments don't roam the street looking for fires, instead they respond from their stations. Armed police can do the same. They will only response to calls involving firearms or other imminent threats to human life. They will be highly trained, and unlike current police they will not be trained to fear the public[3]. They will be trained to stay calm, deescalate, and not use force unless truly required to save another life.

- Community liaisons. This will be like current police, but they will not be unarmed and maybe not be sworn officers (i.e., maybe not have arrest powers). Their job is to walk around and talk to the community, get to know them, understand their problems, and be a face for the government.

[1] https://abc7news.com/society/exclusive-unarmed-black-man-han...

[2] https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=4NnvPJnRAl0

[3] https://medium.com/s/story/fearing-for-our-lives-82ad7eb7d75...