The protests following the killing of George Floyd in the summer of 2020 led to contentious discussions and debates in many cities about policing, with some calling to “defund the police.” However, this debate has generally proceeded without adequate research about either the scale or nature of issues that the police handle and the potential consequences of the proposed reform efforts. To respond to this research gap, we analyze millions of 911 calls for service across nine U.S. agencies. We report on the types of calls for service that the police handle, including how frequently different calls arise, how much time agencies spend on different categories of calls, and the outcomes of those calls. We find that the amount and types of incidents for which people call the police are voluminous, with the vast majority not obviously transferable to other organizations or government sectors without significant resource expenditures or adjustments. However, if the police retain these responsibilities, they also need to reconsider how they can more effectively address community concerns.

2020 年夏天乔治·弗洛伊德 (George Floyd) 被杀后的抗议活动在许多城市引发了关于警务的有争议的讨论和辩论，有人呼吁“撤资警察”。然而，这场辩论通常没有对警方处理的问题的规模或性质以及拟议改革努力的潜在后果进行充分研究。为了弥补这一研究空白，我们分析了九个美国机构的数百万个 911 服务电话。我们报告警方处理的服务呼叫类型，包括不同呼叫出现的频率、机构在不同类型呼叫上花费的时间以及这些呼叫的结果。我们发现人们报警的事件数量和类型非常多，在没有大量资源支出或调整的情况下，绝大多数显然不能转移到其他组织或政府部门。但是，如果警察保留这些责任，他们还需要重新考虑如何更有效地解决社区问题。