The safest neighborhoods also don't have social services or public mental health treatment serving them, not in the degree that the more dangerous neighborhoods do. What they have is a diverse group of people committed to not doing things that jeopardize the public safety. They are largely ignored by police agencies unless help is specifically requested. M4BL.org actually tries to say that these neighborhoods are safer because there are no police and justify their defund policy demand with this fallacy. Those neighborhoods are safer because the individuals take responsibility to be less unsafe. Individuals doing the right thing instead of the wrong thing is by far the primary determination of safe neighborhoods.
For the most part, police are responsive. They react to crimes in progress and committed. Their presence can provide a deterrent but they have no actual ability to actively prevent crime. The more active they get, the more conflict there becomes. This is where I believe that we are; in a place where we demand that our police protect and serve and then treat them as the enemy and actively subvert their ability to do so. I'm all for sending mental health with police, and social services, trained community "de-escalators", and pastor/faith support on their calls. But defunding police to do this is a recipe for disaster. It should be augmentation, not treated as a zero-sum game. I mean, if it is truly important to our communities and not just a lever to be used for political power.
