Funding the police so they can do outreach?

Question

I'm reading about campaigns to decrease funding to or defund police departments right now and came across this quote from NYC Mayor Bill de Blasio:
"'For folks who say defund the police, I would say that is not the way forward,' . . . , indicating that the department needs money for community policing and reaching out to young New Yorkers." 
(Source: Forbes.com - LA Mayor Slashes LAPD Budget as Calls to 'Defund Police' Slowly Pick Up Steam - June 4, 2020 article)
What do you think about this? Is outreach to young people an essential function of police work? If it is, how much money does it take to do this? Also, what is the purpose of reaching out, especially to young people? 
Just as information, the NYPD's budget is $6 billion. Some are calling for a $1 billion decrease in funding.

Accepted Answer

I’m going to tell a personal story here, forgive the length of my comment. 
A few years ago I was walking to the store and a man in a truck started circling me around and around the block yelling weird shit out the window. Nothing threatening. Conversational shit, like asking me how I am etc. I ignored him and ducked into in a cafe for a few hours hoping he left. 
Here’s the thing, nothing he did was exactly illegal, but I was still afraid. If I’d called 911 I’m not sure they would have even responded, or that it would have helped. It may have even made things worse. 
Now if the police had ever actually made an effort to engage my community, to walk around and get to know people, I would have gone up to an officer I knew and spoken to them face to face. I’d done similar before when I’d lived in a primarily white community where officers act very different 
Now I live in what is primarily a community of color, and that’s not an option here. They don’t get out of their SUV’s unless they have to. They don’t reach out the people who live here. They don’t treat anyone with respect. 
Positive community engagement would have been great. It may be past the point now where that’s an option. That’s a fault directly on the police department. 
Why the fuck all that should cost more money is entirely beyond me though. They’re already paid to be here. Being better at their jobs should cost zero dollars.

Answer

Don’t decrease funding but allocate it differently. —Have stricter mental health screenings, with unbiased psychological assessments from outside parties. —Have ethics and deescalation training be more of a priority and less of an afterthought. —Have similar rules of engagement in place as our military does. Strict “combat” rules: you do not fire your weapon because you’re scared; you do not fire your weapon because you THINK you saw a weapon; you do not draw your weapon for intimidation or any other reason other than to use it in a life or death situation.

Answer

Defunding the police is not a good idea.

Answer

I thinking decreasing funding will have the opposite affect. There will be less training, maybe overwork officers, and it’ll be less appealing to highly qualified candidates so more bad officers. Doesn’t seem like a good solution.

Answer

No.  Police officers should NOT be defunded.      If anything they should have MORE funding for better training.  Better mental evaluation. More community involvement to help those so desperately in need.    Help those who dont have good lives and good role models       
The officers should be better evaluated for their emotional and mental state so as to lower and hopefully prevent racial brutality.

Answer

It is essential, a lot of kids come from bad neighborhoods and dont have a good postivie role model in their life, and it also helps kids trust police when they come from bad neighborhoods or around them

Answer

I’d like to see funding for more frequent and focused training, increased (mandatory) mental health services for officers and I think cops should have to do some community service in the communities they serve which could go along with community outreach.  I’m sure there are other, better ideas but I think these could help

Answer

i’m not an expert in this topic by any means. 
but, you know even where i live. it’s a small island the population is only about 120k in total. it’s very white predominant, and even here we don’t have a lot of police interacting with the public. lack of genuine interaction really doesn’t help with the police’s public image. 
i’ve seen so many tweets from black people who live in areas where the population is largely POC, and cops don’t even get out of their cars, sometimes the cops who work in that area don’t actually live there?!
no matter what level of funding is given, if cops don’t embrace themselves into the community they’re supposed to be protecting, if they don’t live in the community they’re supposed to be protecting, they can never do their jobs properly. they’re purposeful distancing doesn’t instil trust into the public. 
just on another note, i see cops as like a clear up force. they are there to clean up issues caused by incompetent governments, who passively and (sometimes) actively work to harm certain communities. 
when you place a huge amount of funding into cops, you miss out on upgrading city infrastructure, you miss out on being able to tackle homelessness, you miss out on being able to support citizens who struggle with addiction, you miss out on being able to build quality recreational areas/centres for youth, you miss out on investing into the physical and mental wellbeing of the citizens in that community, you miss out on being able to tackle poverty. 
neglecting those key areas that make citizens feel valued, like they matter, that they’re part of a wider society, that goes a much further way than what could ever be achieved by giving the police a $6 billion budget. 
and i’m sorry, but $6 billion to achieve WHAT? what? what good have they done with $6 billion? that is so offensive, to take that much money from tax payers, only to have such an incompetent police force.

Answer

I think the issue is they’re spending the money to militarize and drive giant fancy cars (some even have tanks!) to feel like bad asses, when it’s not doing any good for the actual community. They’re not spending that money on thorough training, independent psychological evaluations, outreach programs to get to know their community. I live in a major European city, and the police here drive normal small cars, nothing fancy, they don’t look like they’re in a war zone, and some of them don’t have any weapons. There are different groups and levels depending on training specialty. Like de-escalation. Seems like a better direction to go in. When the police arrive you actually trust that they’re going to calm the situation down significantly. I saw a video of police driving over peaceful protesters in the US. It was disgusting, like something out of China or North Korea. When you militarize the police, they feel like they’re in a war zone or a video game, and they start treating the citizens like expendable enemies.

Answer

Community police can be great. We’ve got a program here that seems to be doing good work, but it’s two white dudes in a poor white area and funded through grants (not a part of the police budget). 
I’d be for reallocating funds and changing how we fund the police, as many are funded through what types of arrests they have. 
Recent events in my city are making me lean towards defunding the police, unfortunately. Disproportionately arrest BIPOC? No money. Can’t de-escalate situations? No money. Pepper spray peaceful protesters? No money. 🤷🏻‍♀️
On the other hand, defunding/reallocating is still inadequate at addressing systemic racism.

Funding the police so they can do outreach?

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