That “defund the police” was a foolish slogan. It should have been “help the police” by providing resources for jobs police shouldn’t be doing. Stupidly, it became all about cutting funds and punishing police rather than safety and providing better services.

If public buildings lacked sprinklers and you wanted a law to require them, would you promote that with “defund the fire department”?

Nobody wants an underfunded police department. We want police that prevent or solve real crimes and don’t have to deal with so many social problems.

If we had policies, programs, and people that worked in those problems, eventually you might be able to cut police department budgets, but that in itself should never be the goal.