Reallocate police funding to community services

The fact that the OPS budget of 358 MILLION DOLLARS which is more than ALL SOCIAL SERVICES COMBINED should speak volumes in itself. Imagine if those funds were relocated to services which would prevent crime and improve well being of Ottawa citizens to begin with. We have to ask ourselves why people commit crime. It is because they do not have their basic needs met. What if the police budget could fund health care, mental health services, affordable housing, substance abuse therapy, education, food access and the myriad of other services that would build a BASIC foundation for a more stable life.
It is also SO important we look at the racism against indigenous and black people in the OPS and in Ontario in general. Colonial violence brutalized and continues to brutalize indigenous communities. Canada has done nothing to break the toxic cycle of of trauma within these communities. Rather we perpetuate this trauma with incarceration, police violence and a lack of funding and social services to these communities.
Indigenous children make up 50% of all foster children under 4 despite making up only 7% of the population. These are children who will be irreversibly traumatized, making them more vulnerable to mental illness, poverty, addiction and crime. What if instead of throwing these people in prisons which do NOTHING to solve the root of the issue (instead perpetuating it), we allocate police funding to social services and funding to indigenous communities and social services to try to prevent this cycle of trauma.