But the feelings are just a symptom, they aren't the problem. You can throw out stats that say it's not likely, but that won't cause me to really worry any les

But the feelings are just a symptom, they aren't the problem. You can throw out stats that say it's not likely, but that won't cause me to really worry any less when I need to decide if I call the police on a loved one, or if I call the neighbor. I honestly wish I didn't bring up the "hurt or killed" aspect of this, as that is always the thing that ends up devolving into internet fights. Worries of ending up with large medical bills from police interaction, or being charged with a small crime and losing your job, friends, house, etc... are much more worrisome in my opinion. Regardless of how based in reality these feelings are, the police need to handle it. The solution isn't pulling out stats and saying "this isn't really an issue", because it clearly doesn't work. Health insurance reform is so badly needed in this country, and the police need to work with the communities, they need to build trust, they need to show the community that they aren't dangerous, they need to show that they won't jump at any opportunity to charge someone with a crime. I fully understand that asking police to go more lenient on arrests and charges when on a wellness call will end up with some possibly very bad people "getting away with it", and that asking police to put their guns down and even possibly disarm themselves in some situations will lead to officers getting injured or killed. But the arms race of everyone distrusting everyone else is going to end up with a much larger amount of harm in the long run.