Police, if necessary

Voters in communities across the nation made decisions on important issues Tuesday. Minneapolis, Minn., residents were among those who bundled up and headed for the polls.

One of the items on the ballot there: whether to defund the police. Or at least whether to replace the police with something called the Department of Public Safety, which sounds a lot like the police.

Apparently, supporters of the idea think a complete overhaul of policing is necessary. We’d suggest better policing is necessary, and always will be.

As long as police are humans, they’ll make bad decisions on occasion. Case in point: Minneapolis and the murder of George Floyd under an officer’s knee. But should a murder (for which there was a conviction) require getting rid of a police department? The people of Minneapolis said no, 56% to 44%.

According to the papers, the ballot question called for a new Department of Public Safety to take “a comprehensive public health approach to the delivery of functions” that would be determined by the mayor and city council. Money would be spent on programs that wouldn’t automatically send armed officers to call on people in crisis. The new department “could include” police officers “if necessary, to fulfill its responsibilities for public safety.”

If necessary? When have cops not been?

If you feel the need to call 911, it might be best if an armed officer responded on the double. And then, later, if someone like a social worker is needed, they can be called to manage a family or mental crisis. But social workers shouldn’t go in on the first wave, when a home, street or neighborhood may be in danger.

The best comment may have come from a man quoted in one of the Minnesota papers, who lives in one of the city’s largely Black neighborhoods and who voted against the proposal. He said he believes cops have learned a lesson after George Floyd’s murder “and what happened to the cop that killed him.” But the people of Minneapolis are as frustrated with rising crime as they are with the city’s law officers.

But without police, who are necessary, matters would only get worse. A better idea is to better train police officers, not replace them with feelgood ideas and social workers. (And if you are a social worker, would you be comfortable patrolling the streets?)

Minnesota has been the hot spot for defund-the-police activism. Thankfully the people knew better, 56-44.