Most problems are more complex than we want to admit

Here’s an easy way to start: a big part of the “how to reform police” dialogue has been “Well, send mental health workers to incidents!” OK. I personally have a lot of questions about that, including “Who will train the $17/hour 911 operator to know whom to send?” and “Will mental health professionals be working at 3am if an incident happens then?” and “What will a DA think about a mental health professional going to a potentially violent crime scene?” But still, it’s a wave of the moment, and people like to talk about similar programs in Eugene (Oregon) and elsewhere that have worked. But to wit, in a good article about police reform efforts from The Washington Post, you see this:

Overhauling incident response is not a panacea. The police can’t solve complex social problems, but neither can civilian responders. Connecting homeless people with medical or social services is obviously more humane and helpful than arresting them for trespassing, but neither will address the toxic web of abuse, affordable-housing shortages and addiction that contributes to homelessness in the first place. Incident response reform must be just the first step.

Indeed. A lot of problems are very complicated, and we try to assign them simple, single-order solutions because of character counts or platform ideology or wanting to be seen as smart and…