be_excellent_to_each_other , 9 months ago

At some point the payouts for settlement impact taxpayers enough that the community paying these settlements demands change.

Or the outcry is enough that you at least start to see some kind of step in the right direction like this very lukewarm response to public concerns about careless shootings of pet dogs, which is at least something other than a direct denial or silence.

There is also the Cahoots program and others like it (as a category I think it's called "alternative dispatch programs" or similar), which have demonstrated benefits. This, by the way, is IMO what defund the police more or less was intended to communicate, for most non-abolitionists. (In reply to your original question.)

In broad strokes, I don't see any other alternatives that don't start with lots more police killings (edit: to clarify, I mean killings by police) and years of protests.