Police are worse than useless. They are actively harmful. We just had a medical emergency with one of our encampment residents. She was flat on the ground, stuporous, with severe decerebrate posturing and breathing normally.

The cops radioed it in as an overdose (which means EMS will take forever to respond), even though there were no signs of OD. To make things worse, the 911 dispatcher confirmed to me that the cops had given them the complete wrong address in their call.

Even worse, I was the only one on scene carrying Naloxone. The cops made everything worse and were not even prepared for an overdose. The cops asked me several times if I could administer Narcan; I had to correct them repeatedly and tell them there were no overdose symptoms and that the woman had a recent history of aneurysm. They stood their and did nothing, and were afraid to even touch her.

NEVER assume that police have made a proper emergency call. Always call 911 yourself. Carry Narcan.

@chadloder
Been posing and pondering this today.
Here's an academic question to consider. Are police even necessary for law enforcement? Forensics does all the actual investigating and courts are meant for prosecution and sentencing. So what actual purpose do cops serve? Even detectives are just there to get credit for what they ordered forensics and uni cops to do

@Cfish @chadloder Police enforces the power of the state. And yes, there is a need for this, IMHO Otherwise, local units with power (often times with bad intentions) take over. This may lead to chaos.
Of course, the police is only a weapon of last resort and can on its own not end crime, there are other agencies and assocations that have to help. One example would be a good social security system, children support offices and stuff.