[STATISM] Should The Police Be Privatized?
Several articles has been written lately about the incompetence of the Swedish police. Despite more resources the police fails to respond to emergency calls around 6500 times every year, a number that is increasing. In July this year, in my region of southern Sweden only, the police failed to respond 500 times. In cases of gunfire and other such extreme emergencies the response is extremely slow, and in almost all complaints against the police the investigation is closed. The most common crime of policemen not in service is domestic abuse. For ordinary people, violent crime is quite far down on the list. But what kind of people do you think are attracted to a violent occupation? Obviously those who like violence.
The state police, then, is lazy, wasteful, incompetent and violent. It's not that there are a few bad apples, the whole system sucks.
- The state police has monopoly so there is nowhere else to turn. This alone means that they don't have the incentive to provide a good service.
- They receive money through taxes, i.e. through theft from the population. Their customers to please are not you and I, we're are not giving them money, but rather politicians and bureaucrats. The state police protect and serve them, not us. Why do you think that the penalty for tax evasion is so incredibly high?
- There is no third party acting as judge in a conflict between a civilian and the state. The state itself acts as judge. What then? Well, naturally the state won't judge itself as hard as it will judge civilians. Police officers can therefore get away with almost anything.
There is a solution to the problem. Privatize both police and courts.
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For further reading and consideration:
Enforcement of Private Property Rights in Primitive Societies: Law without Government
Don't Confuse "Private" Prisons with Free-Market Prisons
Anarchism and the Public Goods Issue: Law, Courts, and the Police
Privatize the Police - Murray Rothbard
Privatization of Municipality-Provided Services
Police States and Private Markets - Jeff Deist
The Privatization of Roads and Highways
The Case for Privatization — of Everything | Walter Block
Private Police? Bruce Benson on the Tom Woods Show
Very interesting! Upvoted for quality info!
Privatized Policing on the neighborhood level, city level, state ..nation-wide? Are we talking about a national service provider, or multiple companies, going after eachother's customers/territories .. profit-seeking results in many efficiencies, but many abuses as well - who provides oversight? Please do not say the insurance industry!
Abolish the Police!? Let's 'Think' About That a Moment ..
I shared a few thoughts on this, but it was in response to someone who said public policing needed to go, directly based on violence perpetrated by police against the citizenry - that is a false argument.
Bottom-line ..such a change can not be contemplated based on costs alone. Policing is one aspect of criminal justice ...take a close look at the PRIVATE PRISONs in the USA ..widespread abuses reported of unjustifiably extended stays with "the people" being billed for them.
@steemswede 's post is a great resource on the subject (up'd!), but I see your point as well @steembriefing - anyone who oversimplifies the benefits as obvious, based purely on the absence of government in the equation, is motivated too much by ideology.
Government waste reduction? Check!
Increased and More Responsive Security for Citizens? Most likely!
Better Results in Criminal Investigations Leading to Justified Prosecution and Just Punishment? Mmmmm...
Overall Harm Reduction Leading to a Healthier More Peaceful Society Overall? God knows! :-)
Sounds great! - can I pre-order for the UK and Poland too please??
How many officers do you want? You can get 3 for the price of 2 if you order within the hour. I'll even throw in a judge for free.
Do you do a 2 for the price of 1 country deal?
Would not having a private police force not be the same but be run for the benift of shareholders. Also if the force was privatised and the goverment police put out off work you would have a situation where private companys would have a demand for experianced staff. Who would they hire, the old police now looking for work. If they messed up, the company would desolve and all the 'staff' would be moved over to the new uniforms of the next one.
Granted its not a answer, its a tough problem. Living in the UK where privatisation of goverment services has been rife I can say it only makes things worse.
What the government calls 'privatization' is never actual privatization.
Assigning a police-enforced monopoly to a non government organisation is a long way from genuine privatization.
Consider you live in a private community area where it's decided to hire a private policing service, with its SOLE purpose of making sure that the Non Aggression Principle is upheld. There will be a large demand and also a wide range of such services, which means great competition which in its turn will drive up the quality. If the service they provide is substandard the community will simply change service provider. Furthermore, security officers are private police. They monitor and protect buildings, shopping malls, and residential areas. Already today there are more security guards in the US than there are state police. In other words, more than half of policing is done privately today. Why couldn't it be 70%. Or 80%. Or 100%?
The starting point of my argument is however primarily a moral one. Being forced to pay for services you haven't ordered is coercion. Taxation is theft.
Which would be fine in principle, but throw in the local gangs forcing out legit competition for said service who's going to stop them. Or only government approved outfits again back to g4s for police, ouch.
Who's going to stop them? A heavily armed and pissed off public who are acting within their moral and legal right to defend themselves.
I think privatization of the police force would lead to more dead people as they don't need to follow the law like a civil servant would. And up hold the Constitution
That's why we see so many private contractors in Iraq Lebanon and Syria , because they don't fall under the Geneva Convention. There for being able to circumvent the rules of war. Now take that and put it on the streets in America/Canada and you got a bunch of hired thugs out on an agenda for big pharma/ and corporations. Cracking skulls and not being held accountabl. The billionaire corporations will hire big time lawyers to get them off their cases.
Not a even comparison and US troops kill just as many innocents as contractors now and days and most contractors have been delegated to protection and delivery duty in modern warfare.
Private police would be held responsible for crimes committed on Us soil just as much as the civil servant would be. They are both or should be US citizens after all and if your just giving the contractors free rain to do whatever the flip they want then your not fixing the problem.
Constables and Contractors, It could work but you have to fix the problem further up the line and there can't just be one Contracting firm for law enforcement nor should you get rid of the government controlled constabulary.