They police, and reform efforts should account for them all, not just the police officers. But it shouldn’t exclude them either.

I think the biggest direct impact nationally from the “defund” stupidity has been repub success at polls (which generally exceeded expectations IMO apart from Trump’s direct involvement in his own election and the Georgia run offs), and unnecessary damage to police morale helping to drive some of these resignations. Not much of the country truly experienced police defunding. And very little, if any, of the spikes in crime over the last year can really be attributed to it, try as partisans may for political advantage. The pandemic and all the shutdowns generated stress, financial distress, all the things that led to similar spikes in ODs.

But rest assured, there are plenty of cops who think social workers should be in the mix in domestic disputes. I’ve seen more than a few say as much in interviews. Police training in general probably needs more conflict de-escalation training. But nothing is going to turn them into family counselors.