Re:There's a growing call to defund the police. Here's what ...
by humanrebar on Monday June 08, 2020 @05:31AM
(#23455044)
I am doubtful that one or two social workers removing a child from a risk-filled home will be a generally safe procedure. At a minimum, they will need to protect themselves, and at some point we're talking about an armed, possibly violent (the abuser might see it as legal kidnapping) officer of the law.
A 10% rate of violence is huge, especially when irrationality and domestic abuse is involved. If armed police are reduced dramatically in number, will they be able to respond in ten minutes?
Police can’t enforce restraining orders when the victim doesn’t have $10K’s to hire a lawyer to go to court and get the order in the first place. Getting such orders is hit or miss from what I’ve heard, even if you have the cash.
Instead, sand an unarmed social worker to recover the items. If the abuser escalates, or the social worker witnesses abuse, send the police to arrest the abuser and prosecute them for assault. Now, the prosecution has an unbiased witness to help them win their case.
90% of the time, the abuser won’t escalate, and the police won’t need to drive out. Repeat the exercise for all routine police actions. (Heck, we even have armed police enforcing playground rules in many schools.)
Having done that, and having eliminated 90% of the police’s workload, cut their budget 80%, and hold what’s left of the department to a much higher standard.