[unsnap_biceps]

I'm traditionally conservative and have many law enforcement in my extended family. Law enforcement is very required for society, but it's a blunt tool. There are classes of crime that will not be reduced no matter how many people you put in jail. Mental health and addiction issues (often they go hand in hand) really should be solved differently than just jail time.

My small town has a swat team and two bear cats. They've never been used outside of training. They're very likely never going to be used outside of training. This is a ton of money that the police justified by "If we don't spend it, we lose it". That's not fiscally responsible and it's something as a conservative we do need to push back on and some of that involves defunding the police's overly excessive budgets and reducing taxes or at least reallocating it towards other social programs that will help beyond just locking people up.

[sjducb]

Agreed that sounds like wasteful spending. When that SWAT team finally gets a callout they’re going to go hard and use excessive force.

The US spends 135 billion on its police force so some wasteful spending is going to happen.

Defund the police people would spend that money on something unrelated to law enforcement.

I would spend it on something useful and law enforcement related like more training for officers.