One suggestion that has been made is to not call the cops at all for certain kinds of emergencies:
* Mental health (otherwise nonviolent)
* Animal problems
This alone could reduce deaths dramatically. I witnessed an incident where the cops were called about a stray dog. They shot it. When you have a gun, every problem looks like a target.
I think it should also be made clear who has priority at a 'scene' firefighters, paramedics, or police?
Personally I think it's implicitly assumed that it is police that have that authority. I believe this should be flipped so that medical and fire officials have authority at the scene of an incident, not police.
In the case of George Floyd, then the paramedics would have had the authority to get those three cops off the guys back possibly in time to save him.
* Mental health (otherwise nonviolent)
* Animal problems
This alone could reduce deaths dramatically. I witnessed an incident where the cops were called about a stray dog. They shot it. When you have a gun, every problem looks like a target.
I think it should also be made clear who has priority at a 'scene' firefighters, paramedics, or police?
Personally I think it's implicitly assumed that it is police that have that authority. I believe this should be flipped so that medical and fire officials have authority at the scene of an incident, not police.
In the case of George Floyd, then the paramedics would have had the authority to get those three cops off the guys back possibly in time to save him.