I’m with you on the second point, which has been proven over and over and over. The third point is actually a function of the second (higher qualifications and requirements), so I agree with you on that point as long as the second thing happens.

I’m not sure the first is true, however. If the job is scoped to leverage the higher skill set 90% of the time, I don’t know that you need more police. I think about all the parking/traffic enforcement/control, busting of pot shops, and general over policing which occurs and think about how those jobs could likely be done by others, with police involvement when warranted.

One of my theories is that the public is conditioned to assume that the police are the answer to far wider set of problems than would be true IF the construct of how to achieve/maintain public safety were different. It would take a pretty significant restructuring of our systems, and there doesn’t seem to be a huge appetite amongst the power players to do so.