Police Conduct Vital, Non-violent Rescue Work

Police conduct search and rescue operations in kidnapping cases or when children wander off, do welfare checks on the elderly and mentally ill, and can help remove vulnerable people from situations of domestic violence in their homes. Violent crime is usually defined as homicide, robbery, rape and aggravated assault and actually takes up only a small portion of a police officer's on-shift time. Defunding police would likely lead to more of their other, community-based work taking a hit in addition to putting the community at risk from these violent crimes. Several cities from New Haven, New Orleans, Sacramento, and Seattle have reported that the vast majority of 911 calls involving police have not been violence-related. In fact, only about 4% of a police officer's on duty time is spent involving violent crime. Approximately half of their time is spent responding to non-criminal calls and traffic duty. On a more personal level, police can also do welfare checks on the elderly or disabled members of the community, making them feel less alone and ensuring they are healthy for family members or friends concerned.