RE: Who should be the police? Who is most qualified to protect and defend us? All of us, not just a few of us!
Police are a tool, like a hammer. And hammers can be used to build houses or break windows. All depends on who is wielding them.
I like your approach. The police are not supposed to bring peace and stability. We are. Police are the tool we use to bring peace and stability.
For example, in many neighborhoods, the police are not trusted and therefore citizens don't cooperate with the police for investigations. Thus they choose to not use that tool, and the neighborhood stays unsafe. ( There are many valid reasons why they don't trust the police, just to be clear.)
Two major reasons why the police have become something they didn't use to be:
criminalization of non-criminal activity, aka drug war, gambling, prostitution. This forces the police into the role of imposing one group's impression of "proper behavior" on another, which makes those being imposed upon resentful and rebellious. This is a perversion of the relationship between society and police -- their role is supposed to be a tool to prevent violence, not a tool to impose one group's will on another.
Enlarging society. Police are restrained in behavior and impressions when they know the people they are policing. They tend to objectify those they are policing when they don't know them, and treat them as non-human.
You bring up good points. I'm talking about an ideal way, but I recognize that a separate force could do it as well, accountable to everyone and directed by everyone. It would still require people to unite on the same moral level of living and operate a force in their area according to their rules. Non-criminal activities excluded in most cases. Then everyone would be agreeing and unanimous in how the protection of their area was to be conducted. In the end, if a force does wrongs as a group, it's still up to the community to stop them. How to ensure our own freedom and security... If we outsource but still act as individuals united to not tolerate any abuses at all, then that would probably be better all around. We would still have to be vigilant to their power, all the while still being able to defend and protect ourselves if we want to. Thanks for the feedback.