In such mental health situations the social worker could be the commanding officer (essentially commanding police officers), relying on violence if deemed necessary.
The important point is that the structure of decision making inside the police is totally messed up. If all you have is a hammer, everything looks like a nail …
So the leadership has to come from somewhere else, basically.
One huge obstacle I still see is that US police basically completely gambled away trust inside the communities. They have to build up trust and are unwilling or unable to do that. That’s tragic. One way to change that would be to tip the balance way in favor of anyone not in the police, e.g. the police having to be right in fact when they apply violence to a problem (i.e. if they shoot the person they are suspecting of having a gun better have a gun or else they go to prison).
This would obviously lead to less effective policing, but that might be needed to lead to a change of strategy by the police. Because if you have to be right in fact you will act differently.
The important point is that the structure of decision making inside the police is totally messed up. If all you have is a hammer, everything looks like a nail …
So the leadership has to come from somewhere else, basically.
One huge obstacle I still see is that US police basically completely gambled away trust inside the communities. They have to build up trust and are unwilling or unable to do that. That’s tragic. One way to change that would be to tip the balance way in favor of anyone not in the police, e.g. the police having to be right in fact when they apply violence to a problem (i.e. if they shoot the person they are suspecting of having a gun better have a gun or else they go to prison).
This would obviously lead to less effective policing, but that might be needed to lead to a change of strategy by the police. Because if you have to be right in fact you will act differently.