> Will better qualified police officers get hired with less funding?

The idea is that you remove half the police work load, hire half the officers, and use that savings to assign that removed work load to more appropriate people like social workers, unarmed traffic enforcement, etc.

Cost per officer doesn't have to change.

The point that some of these groups were trying to make (but failed miserably in their messaging) was that cities with well funded police departments often skimp on social services.

Indeed. ACAB and Defund The Police advocates have sullied a very real and reasonable response to a very real problem through aggressive messaging :/