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> I am skeptical that the crime rates would drop if there is less policing since the crime rates are not caused by police.

About that...

>When New York police officers temporarily reduced their “proactive policing” efforts on low-level offenses, major-crime reports in the city actually fell, according to a study based on New York Police Department crime statistics.

https://www.latimes.com/science/sciencenow/la-sci-sn-proacti...

An alternative interpretation is that crime rates are so high because police spending is the wrong way to deal with the problem. Money that could be spent on drug treatment programs is instead being spent 10x on a paramilitary organization that openly admits and jokes about its policy is to shoot first and ask questions later.

Historically police department reorganizations have actually often involved increases in "policing," in addition to structural changes in what "policing" looks like...

is reducing crime rates the goal here?

reducing the abuses committed by police department is a benefit to society, even if the reported crime rate rises (up to a point, of course)