Cui bono

I suggest looking into Camden, New Jersey, where the crime and murder rate was consistently among the top 5 in the nation, who disbanded their police department and reformed it building a new culture of understanding and getting involved with the community e.g. hosting cookouts on the streets, instead of going to war with them. 

I took your advice and found a CNN piece that was mildly complimentary and a BI piece that had a more jaundiced view https://www.businessinsider.com/camden-new-jersey-police-disbanded-but-theres-more-to-story-2020-6?op=1

It's a work in progress.  Camden is not yet a place that attracts enough tax base to support the new department so it's dependent on grants, which does not bode well for the long term.

The basis for the question "cui bono" was to examine/question the course of action proposed by activists who may have other purposes in their minds.  

[To DrBill]

Well I already addressed the benefits of defund the police (edit: as I understand it) in my answer and just thought that this was slightly related and not something I was previously aware of. If there's yet another proposal which you wanted to discuss the merits of you'd need to be more specific.

Yes, interesting perspective. I did note that Chris Christie cutting funding seemed to be one of the original problems and that reforming the PD with lower wages seemed an odd way to tackle crime. I certainly didn't see anything to suggest that it was a panacea, and it's difficult to see how those changes would or could result in a major reduction in crime, something which really needs major funding in community services, education and employment opportunities, but I found that the community focused approach was encouraging. I mean, surely you agree that the police should engage with the community rather than treat them as combatants?

Certainly.  

I think you'll agree that if the community changes with new members whose experience before from the old country makes them suspicious and reluctant to call on the local beat cop, and then the beat cop is removed due to budgetary issues, the community is on a slippery slope, not fallaciously but the real thing.

We are seeing the old adage of Franklin, "an ounce of prevention is worth a pound of cure".