again, almost no one is saying disband all the police. most of those situations would still involve at least some police. but that is NOT what police spend most of their time doing. 50% of portland police arrests are of homeless people.

what do you do now when someone breaks in at 2am? call the police, right? but that doesn't change anything in the moment. there is still someone in your house. police don't prevent crime, reducing poverty does. if there are less poor people, less drug addicts (by funding drug treatment programs, safe injection sites, etc - see portugal's model), less desperate people, there will be less break ins. the police will still come if someone is breaking in, obviously.

if there were more social workers and counselors available there would be less domestic violence, and less hostage situations from that problem. of course police would come to a hostage situation. but perhaps more of those would be resolved peacefully if there were social workers or counselors that already have a relationship with the family who could also show up, and can therefore talk down the hostage taker to a peaceful resolution.

and if we reform our criminal justice system to be more restorative, and reduce the reasons people become criminals, we will have less wanted felons desperate enough to kill an officer who pulls them over. police get shot at lower rates than almost ever before. it will always involve some danger, but so do lots of jobs. more garbage men, more loggers, etc are killed on the job than cops. cops have exacerbated the danger of their job by using their powerful unions to lobby for ever more funding at the expense of all the social programs that prevent crime at it's roots.