I don’t live in The St Louis area and am not very familiar with the issues. However, it does seem like this might have been a response to the unnecessary deaths of people in distress that the police are ill equipped to deal with. If domestic problems, even those where a weapon is involved, are attended to by both social services and the police then the distressed person might be talked into surrendering without hurting others.
I’m not in favor of defunding police and also believe that they can’t handle every issue that comes up. There needs to be social services alternatives available to 911 when they are called for domestic issues. The 911 folks also need training in when to call in others besides the police. This seems to be a new way to respond and it will take time to figure out how to do it. Even then it won’t be completely effective.