I'm just going to go ahead and say that police unions wield outsized political power, which is why people who own the "abolish/defund the police" slogan think "

I'm just going to go ahead and say that police unions wield outsized political power, which is why people who own the "abolish/defund the police" slogan think "reform" isn't enough. The reforms may get passed (or we might have another, more "important" political cause that sucks momentum away) but if the cops themselves are hostile to the reforms, they have plenty of ways to pull the teeth out of the regulations, or just get them overturned/taken out of the next CBA. Police "unions" are exceedingly well-funded, well-networked groups that can apply a TON of political and electoral pressure. They also provide (very good/expensive) lawyers for any cop found guilty of an infraction. On top of that, the very act of prosecuting cops is essentially biting the hand that feeds you for a DA/AG. The cops will always opposing things that make the job of being a cop harder. The same way a software developer does. You can't make the incentives align if the people who currently are police are the people you feel should not, under any circumstances, be the ones in charge of public safety. The number of low-grade thugs in the US police forces is pretty apparent when you look at the domestic violence numbers.1 Either abusive people are self-selecting into being cops, or being a cop makes you abusive. TL;dr- You want "reform" because you think there's inherent value created by the current system, and I don't because I think the value is an byproduct and not the goal. 1-https://sites.temple.edu/klugman/2020/07/20/do-40-of-police-families-experience-domestic-violence/ https://sites.temple.edu/klugman/2020/07/20/do-40-of-police-...