Quote:
Originally Posted by Stormer
Policing costs everywhere have skyrocketed. There definitely needs to be an examination of value for money. The problem is, many of the alternative programs also end up bloated and wasteful. Addictions I think is the best place to start, but I fear the Government will mess this up too.
|
That's why you let people who are experts in that field run those programs. You don't stop trying to make people's lives better because other services are bloated. That is a bullshit talking point coming from conservative politicians who are in charge of the same "bloated" or underfunded, and ineffective public services that they blame on government ineffectiveness and inefficiency, when
they are the government. This is all by design and does not have to be this way.
It is ridiculous that the wages of most of the police are hovering around six figures and higher, while most teachers and social workers, and some healthcare providers, you know the people who actually make a difference, make 50-75% of that. We should be making investments in keeping people out of the poverty to crime pipeline, which is less expensive than
reacting to it as the police can only do. To start, the proposed increase to the police budget in the upcoming two-year municipal budget should be directed to the plan to end homelessness (or to go to functional-zero homelessness). There is no need to build a brand new unit for each person who is homeless as city admin previously costed. There is plenty of empty public housing units that could be utilized. The cost of the wrap around services to support these people plus the cost of these units would cost a lost less than what untreated poverty costs taxpayers in the form of healthcare, policing, justice, and lost economic productivity. The only things stalling this is the desire for private interests to profit from poverty ("affordable housing", cheap labour costs due to the threat of homelessness and the desperation that idea creates, etc), and the growing power of a police force that serves those private interests above anything else (think about how quickly the police respond to shoplifting at a big box store vs investigating sexual assault cases).