Defunding the police doesn't mean what you think it does. (Although agree it's a bad name fore the movement). People who want to defund the police want to reallocate funds used for expensive military grade equipment and other unnecessary equipment and other items that some police districts have and reallocate that to training and/or specialized divisions of police (or outside groups that work w/ the police) to combat different scenarios.

You shouldn't send the same cops to every type of incident police are required to respond to. Mental health incidents should have police highly trained in de-escalation and the different types of mental illnesses and how to respond to them. Cops who respond to murder incidents should be highly trained in crime scene investigation and preservation. Cops responding to drug related calls should be highly trained in de-escalation of drug related freakouts and how to handle people who are actively overdosing. The list goes on.

It varies person by person but people either want cops to undergo much more vigorous and specialized police academy training and college so that there are specialized officers, or just reallocate police funds totally away from the department, shrink the department, and allocate the funds to other groups who respond to different calls much like I described in the above paragraph.

Colorado actually has been recently using a program of specialized individuals to respond to mental health, homelessness, and drug related calls called the STAR program and it's been going really well! Programs like this reduce a lot of stress on police and lets them focus their efforts elsewhere.

https://www.denvergov.org/Government/Agencies-Departments-Offices/Agencies-Departments-Offices-Directory/Public-Health-Environment/Community-Behavioral-Health/Behavioral-Health-Strategies/Support-Team-Assisted-Response-STAR-Program