quote:

-Traffic Control: unarmed, deals with clearing car crashes from the road, speeding tickets*, the drunk tank, etc.
*related note: speeding tickets should be tied to your personal income, rather than the current system of "life ending for poors, negligible for the rich"
-Fire Department: we obviously already have this but it should be listed
-Social Workers/Counselors: unarmed, helps deal with domestic/child abuse, mental health crisis, suicide prevention, etc.
-Theft: unarmed, people in charge of who tracking down someone who stole your stuff and/or dealing with insurance people to make sure you're reimbursed
-General Peacekeeping: unarmed, on the lookout for situations where other departments are needed, trained to calm people down in a pinch. Should be largely sourced from the neighborhoods they work in, so they have some incentive to actually care about the people they're watching.
-Homicide Detectives: armed, but not nearly to the extent that they are now. No tear gas, no tanks, none of that poo poo. The only lethal weapon they get is a sidearm, and they need extensive disciplinary training to use it as a last resort. Body cams at all times - if a camera is "mysteriously" inactive at the time they use it, immediately fired & blacklisted from law enforcement. If someone dies when the camera's off, they're on the hook for murder. Ideally, should be the smallest group of the lot, and require shitloads of training.
-Nat. Guard: literally, a small portion of the national guard. We still have school shootings all the loving time, we do kinda need a department to deal with that. Protocols in place to disarm and replace the homicide department if they get out of hand. Separate from the police force.

otherwise, the budget that went to arming every department with tanks, explosives, tactical swat gear, and paying the cops ridiculously inflated salaries should be diverted to things like UBI and other social programs - when people aren't desperate for cash, they tend not to steal poo poo! what a concept. Should also be used to get people leaving prison back on their feet, rather than kicking them onto the street.

Prisons need so much revision it's not even funny, but here's a couple things I think would help:
-non violent offenders should be released with their records expunged.
-more councilors/therapists and less guards
-skills/job training in prison (I think one of the countries in the netherlands is like this? like, they have prisoners who look after cows and stuff.)
-companies can't buy prison labor. No more of this bullshit where wholefoods pays Prisoner #3542 $0.12 a day to farm tilapia for them. They can hire actual workers for fair wages, or they can eat poo poo.