Three thoughts about policing. ONE: What if policing itself is more important than arrest and convic

Three thoughts about policing.

ONE: What if policing itself is more important than arrest and conviction? That is, what if the act of being present was more important than making collars? I understand that a major part of how police are supervised pertains to, said simply, how many people they bust. But what if we built police forces that were trained in peace keeping, intervention and deescalation, emphasizing the overall crime and disorder rates rather than the arrest and conviction of criminals? Everything comes down to what people are managed around. Departments could be graded on the overall crime rates of their relevant areas. I understand the appeal of apprehending perpetrators but what if we actually found making it more difficult to do harm went further than busting bad guys? This might be a better framing for policing. Of course it raises other issues about how data is collected and reported but that's for another time.

TWO: Cops should have to live within the municipality they serve. Full stop.

THREE: It might make sense to take away the guns of beat cops. Perhaps guns should only be carried by officers in designated tactical roles, such as SWAT? Like, if a gun was needed a gun would have to be summoned. The gun would not be something every police office always had with him or her.