The obvious question: "Why not hire more police?" I assume the answer is that that would be politically unfashionable.
The second question: "Will a private force have different "rules of engagement?"" Will they be like a private security team, who call in the cops when there's trouble? If so, the plan is better than nothing, but not exactly ideal.
If not--if they will be a parallel police force--they, and we, have big problems. Thugs and protestors may believe one can "defund the police," but there will always be a need for law enforcement. Private enforcers put us back into the chaos of competing barons that the Magna Carta addressed (or should have) long ago. Or, perhaps worse, they become a political police. I think that's the intended end-game for the leaders of the defunders, but they may want separation instead.
There will be something.
The uncertainty is worrisome. Multiple solutions will be tried, and who knows what will emerge?
ReplyDeleteI worked at a non-profit that was one of the consortium funding a private police force for our subsection of a city, the police department dating from 1959.
ReplyDeleteContemporary academic analysis of the reasons for its creation and of its early performance is here: 35.8.223.68/etd/13224/datastream/OBJ/View/
A more recent, and quite perceptive account, is here: https://pressbooks.ulib.csuohio.edu/history-of-university-circle-in-cleveland/chapter/11-decades-of-crisis-1940-1970/ -- although the bits about the police department per-se are few and small within a larger narrative there.