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.
2 comments:
The uncertainty is worrisome. Multiple solutions will be tried, and who knows what will emerge?
I 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.
Contemporary 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.
Post a Comment