I’m a union guy and I’ve been a union guy my entire life, since my first job in the early 90s. The problem here is the police union. The police union bargains to prevent the dumb bullshit they do from being taken away from them. When you see cops directing traffic after events, that’s because the cops are soaking up overtime and refuse to let another job title handle traffic. When you see cops responding to non emergency events, it’s because the cops are refusing to let another job title handle little shit.
We need more cops, but we would need FAR fewer and could focus their resources FAR better if we could redefine what a police officer does in the year of our lord 2024. It is a job title that is in obvious need of reimagining. What police provide and what the citizens want is not aligned and it’s crazy that the cops are just like, nah, we ain’t changing how bout dat
They just refuse to change but they make sure to complain the entire time.