[Lanny_McDonald]

Originally Posted by Azure

And of course better training equals more funding, right?

Wrong. better training =/= more funding. Just the opposite. Better training means less funding required as the police are better prepared to handle situations and the negative outcomes are less costly.

It is becoming pretty evident that most police don't receive near enough training to help the deal with everyday situations.

That's because departments are busy spending money on military equipment and then the training it takes to use that equipment. This funnels money away from less expensive training that could help all officers and turns it into very expensive specialized training for a select few officers.

So, not sure how defunding is going to help that.

Defunding is a mechanism of shift fiscal resources from one division in government to another. This means the budget shrinks for one and expands for another. For the police this means their budget shrinks and they have to make fiscal decisions on operational needs. The money is channeled toward completing the mission of the department and not on specialized divisions that are costly to operate.

For example, when my agency lost funding they reorganized and focused efforts on completing the mission. They mothballed a number of specialized units (Special Investigations Division, components of SWAT, reductions in motors, etc.) and went back to more tradition policing models with vanilla beat squads, detective unit, and a dual purpose SWAT team. All the expense was cut but service levels maintained.

But of course right now most decisions are being made on emotional reactions. You are right, there are certain cities that have had massive success with retooling their police force to focus on actual helping the public and community outreach instead of just 'responding' to threats.

Of course nobody cares about that because that headline doesn't sell.

Yes, emotions play a role in decision making, but most governments make decisions based on needs determined by significant study. They know what the needs of their constituents are and address them accordingly. For the vast majority of municipalities across the country things run really well and the trust in the institutions of local government remain high. And yes, those stories are told in the media, they just don't grab the attention of the public. There's too much negative stuff going on elsewhere that bumps the good news from the news hole.