for people who have trouble imagining a world without police, i encourage you to begin by imagining a world where police are not in charge of, say, traffic violations. that right there would eliminate 24 MILLION police interactions each year. https://theappeal.org/traffic-enforcement-without-police/

when we talk about defunding the police, the immediate reaction is "well what about murder?" i'm happy to respond to that, but only if i get to ask "what about traffic violations?" or "what about mental distress?"

relatedly - removing police from traffic enforcement puts the onus for safe driving on public officials, instead of allowing them to get away with terrible policy and forcing the police to deal with it instead.

e.g. a great way to reduce DUIs is to have functioning, reliable, affordable (preferably free!) and widely available public transportation. as @Grits4Breakfast just pointed out, more speed bumps are better than more cops giving out more speeding tickets.

also -- traffic enforcement is racist. that's a statistical fact. it can be dangerous, accounting for around 11% of fatal police shootings. and its often just a way to make money for your city or county, while clogging up the judicial system.

in other words, traffic enforcement is basically just racist revenue generation! 24 million times a year! lets get rid of it.

btw this EXCELLENT article is by the inimitable @megoconnor13 who is immensely smart and very talented, follow her if you don't already