If we want to stop neighborhood gang violence in the long term, we need to work on why people join gangs, and what they are fighting over. We can't do that with police, who generally don't come into the situation until after it's too late and things have gone wrong.
But if most of our money is going to the police, then what resources are available to do the longer-term work on gangs and neighborhoods?
In software development terms (since this is HN), it would be like spending more and more money on QA and support because your products have so many problems. At some point a wise manager is going to say "wait, we should invest in better product development instead."
If you have infinite funding, you can do both. If you don't have infinite funding, you need to look at changing your allocation.
But if most of our money is going to the police, then what resources are available to do the longer-term work on gangs and neighborhoods?
In software development terms (since this is HN), it would be like spending more and more money on QA and support because your products have so many problems. At some point a wise manager is going to say "wait, we should invest in better product development instead."
If you have infinite funding, you can do both. If you don't have infinite funding, you need to look at changing your allocation.