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Look, the reason you can't privatize the police, isn't because they would do a worse job than the current police force. In fact, a private police force would likely drastically drop overall crime rates.
The reason you can't have a private police force, is all political and perceptual.
Our current police forces are only capable of weathering things like what happened in Ferguson and Baltimore, because they are perceived to be a reflection of the community. A nation of private police-forces, would collapse into anarchy.
So it is pointless to talk about it. The same thing goes for privatizing the military.
The police force is a socialistic construct that very few dare question in society. But as we are hearing more and more cases of police brutality (many never going viral or making it to national news), I think it is about times the people and the police force went our separate ways. We should no longer pay the for the well being of those who are servants of the state. The state that wants to commit tierany against the spirit of mankind. I believe that us as Americans need to eradicate the police force, and create a new market of private security. And I believe it will benefit all Americans.
Opinions?
If the idea of selling your rights sounds good, sure. Privatize military, police, and you name it. Government is pretty much privatized anyway.
Hello East India Company. We just completed a full circle, and are right back to get along with you.
This is actually very very common in larger cities. There are probably 3x as many private police as public police in the St Louis area. (They go through academy, carry weapons, and have full arrest powers.)
The big reason people have privatized police is not being able to fire people. It is because the constitution does not apply to private police; in particular, you have no protection from illegal search and seizure by private police.
If it's a private organization working on behalf of the state, it's really not private. It's substadized. A truly private police force is open to the scrutiny of the market, and consumers. The example you described has little to do with privatization.
If I could stop y'all from doing so, I would. Obviously, "privatize everything" brigade doesn't care about constitutional rights. Or, did you mean a fascistic approach to policing and other services where private corporations are also the government?
Think about this for a minute..if you turn over policing to a private corporation they have no ability to generate a profit except by charging more for the service than it actually costs them. So, assuming they had the same costs it is going to be more expensive. They can't really save on facilities costs, equipment or vehicles- so that leaves them two ways to save money in order to generate more profit. Offer fewer services or pay cops less than they are currently getting. If you pay less you are not going to get cops who can get a job anywhere else, so you are going to employ either very young people, or experienced cops who have so many problems that they can't get a job with a public agency. Is that really what you want?
Look at private prisons, they make money by requiring states to promise them 100% occupancy, and they also limit the kinds of prisoners they will accept, no sick ones, no high risk ones. Even with those cost saving measures despite their promise of offering cheaper prison beds that has not generally been the case. And private prisons have a higher rate of inmates dying from lack of medical care, assaults on other inmates and prison staff than similar public facilities.
If it's a private organization working on behalf of the state, it's really not private. It's substadized. A truly private police force is open to the scrutiny of the market, and consumers. The example you described has little to do with privatization.
I think you meant subsidized..but anyway- you could hardly have a truly private police force could you? That would mean they could pick which laws they enforce, where they work and when they work, how many cops they deploy, what tactics they use to arrest people, etc. and I think most people would agree, that's just not a very good idea
I don't see any real legal or moral difference to delegating police functions to a private business as opposed to a government-run one. Both would be subject to the same laws, rights, obligations and responsibilities. I see several possible differences, and benefits, in their operation. First, a private contractor has a contract for a specific time and is paid for services they provide during that time. As such, that private company is responsible for retirement benefits or any other costs of the employees after they leave the service of the company. The taxpayer is not on the hook to pay for benefits to individuals decades after they received the service from them. 2nd, there is the opportunity for multiple companies to provide services. That provides the incentive to improve service, lower costs and keep their customers happy. Government run PDs (or any other services) have no such incentive. The company is responsible for the acts of it's employees. And they pay a steep financial penalty when those employees step over the line. Unlike with government run PDs where any settlements come from the taxpayer, not the police or their administration. I would expect a muck more efficient and service oriented force.
Where do you get politer, more professional, customer focused service? Your local DMV, or say your local Starbucks?
I don't see any real legal or moral difference to delegating police functions to a private business as opposed to a government-run one. Both would be subject to the same laws, rights, obligations and responsibilities.
I'd assumed the idea was free market. This sounds like you want private enterprise to operate entirely on public terms. Private enterprise is not "for welfare of all".
I don't see any real legal or moral difference to delegating police functions to a private business as opposed to a government-run one. Both would be subject to the same laws, rights, obligations and responsibilities. I see several possible differences, and benefits, in their operation. First, a private contractor has a contract for a specific time and is paid for services they provide during that time. As such, that private company is responsible for retirement benefits or any other costs of the employees after they leave the service of the company. The taxpayer is not on the hook to pay for benefits to individuals decades after they received the service from them. 2nd, there is the opportunity for multiple companies to provide services. That provides the incentive to improve service, lower costs and keep their customers happy. Government run PDs (or any other services) have no such incentive. The company is responsible for the acts of it's employees. And they pay a steep financial penalty when those employees step over the line. Unlike with government run PDs where any settlements come from the taxpayer, not the police or their administration. I would expect a muck more efficient and service oriented force.
Where do you get politer, more professional, customer focused service? Your local DMV, or say your local Starbucks?
what you just described is a libertarian fantasy. We will just hire cops for $10 an hour and hey what the heck if they don't bother to show up when there's an emergency, after all the last job they had was delivering pizzas and anyway, they can learn policing on the job. Someone else will pay their pensions, not the taxpayer (ignoring the taxes that are paid for the private police department's services)
A corporation's fiduciary responsibility is to make money for it's stockholders- their primary responsibility is not to provide any particular level of service to it's customers. And once you 'buy your own police department' you are pretty much stuck aren't you? You can't even go back to a public agency because the facility and equipment costs would be more than most Cities or Counties could afford to acquire in a short time- so you sign the contract and they own local law enforcement for as long as they want -and I bet the costs would go up quite a bit once they realized they had you by the short hairs
oh..and one other itsy bitsy problem, corporations are exempt from public records requests, so they might, or they might not provide you with the information that you would otherwise receive from a public agency - maybe one of the cops roughed you up and you would like a copy of the report, don't be so sure you will get it.
Not to mention the possibility that you could end up with one player like Halliburton providing all privatized police services, and what happens if they decide their corporate interest dictates that they create their own rules, even their own laws. If they had control of 2/3 of municipal police departments there is not one damn thing you could do to stop them -welcome to fascism
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