A little over a year ago,
Gallup asked Americans to choose between two approaches to lowering the crime rate.
First,
direct more money and effort to go into addressing social and economic problems like drug addiction,
homelessness, and mental health.
Or option number two, more money and effort for strengthening law enforcement.
Almost twice as many respondents chose address social problems.
Now, this is a bit of a false dichotomy.
People didn't have the option to answer both, and it's possible to invest in both of these things.
But there are monetary constraints, particularly for local governments in charge of most policing.
What this poll indicates is a widespread belief
that the preferable crime fighting strategy isn't focused on policing.
This is a complicated conversation.
The question of whether police keep us safe raises many more questions before it can be answered.
How are they keeping us safe?
Safe from what?
And of course, who is us?
My name's Jerusalem Dempsis.
I'm a staff writer at the Atlantic.
And this is good on paper,