Police: More unarmed teams needed in Tacoma

I suggest that we revisit how to fund the police and direct their activities. I am mindful of the fatal police takedown of Manny Ellis in Tacoma and similar situations across the country involving people experiencing mental health crises.

NAMI (the National Alliance on Mental Illness) and other organizations have advocated for crisis intervention teams to deal with such persons. Tacoma Police have made some gestures in this direction but they haven’t been adequate.

Some police funding could be diverted to formation of an unarmed crisis team. Further diversions could be in unarmed traffic enforcement teams, and so forth.

I would term this “wise funding” the police, with less possibility of abuse of force and more accountability and transparency.