Stash, that all sounds great until you think about it.
I did think about it and many others have as well. This is not new. Look at the CAHOOTS program in Eugene which is held up as the model and has been in place for 30 years. I'm not saying it could work everywhere, especially in a snap, but it could work a vast majority of places if implemented correctly.
Police get involved with mentally ill people because sometimes they have to use force to have a mentally ill person seen by a doctor and assessed. Police officers are vested with powers under legislation to help other professions.
In my city, 850k+, unless someone is a direct harm to themselves or others, the cops can't force them to do anything. In our case here, we will have trained non-combative personal handle these issues. If the cops are needed they will be called. Just not first responders. Test and learn, we'll see how it goes and revise as warranted.
Homelessness and school discipline are already not police issues.
I don't know if you live in a city, but here and the other major metro regions I've lived in, Homelessness, especially, police are the first responders. Absolutely. Same with school disputes. The calls all go into the police and the police respond.
As for neighbour disputes, what kind of minor neighbour disputes will these professionals be mediating - noise complaints?
How will a non-police officer enforce laws on excessive noise or trespassing, or lewd conduct, or a myriad of other offences?
Triage. Vectoring of incidents to the proper resources at point of contact. Again, this is not an overnight implementation. Lots and lots of work needs to be done to do this right. If someone is trespassing, that is breaking the law, a criminal offense and one dealt with by the police. If the homeless encampment on the side walk down the street from me is too loud, that's not a criminal offense - Today you call the police - Tomorrow your incident report is vectored to skilled, trained social workers to go see what's what.
Everything you have said will wind up being investigated by police anyway.
None of them are. Mental health issues, the homeless, school discipline and neighbor disputes? What's to be investigated and none are investigated today because there's nothing to investigate. Again, if someone is committing or commits a crime, that's obviously a police matter.
Who will be enforcing traffic laws and investigating traffic accidents if police will only be trying to reduce crime?
Again, if you violate the law, it's a police matter. Traffic accident investigations? I suppose those with the tools, knowledge, and expertise to investigate them. Right now, that's pretty much the cops. Do all traffic accidents require investigation?
These are all traditional police jobs for a reason. Defunding the police is defunding the police, and it's unworkable.
If you say so, but like I said, this is not new. I'm not sure these "traditional job" are that traditional and if they are, I think the reasons are worth looking at. Not just running away with one's hair on fire yelling, "There must be reasons!!!"
Less police will mean the police employed will be overworked and susceptible to stress leave, leaving less even police. Meanwhile, community expectations from their police will be met even less, leading to more distrust and more disrespect towards police.
That's quite the extrapolation.
I think you're still not getting it. This is a release valve for many. Even the Police Union here is behind it. The vast majority of police calls that lead to first response by the police don't require the police and that is known when the incident is reported. But there's no one else to respond. By shuffling as much of that non-police stuff off to trained non-police responders with back up social services, it's a welcome relief.
They need more funding, not less.
That seems like the last thing we want to do. Just throwing more money at a system that needs a reassessment and serious reality check is nothing more than avoidance and we'll be having the same conversation in 10 years. It's time to look at alternatives and make some changes. It's called progress.