Self-Defense & Violence Prevention Blog

Violent crime continues to devastate the lives of millions of United States citizens every year, as well as billions of people worldwide.

Governments, both local and federal, do not stop it. With what resources they do muster, these governments focus huge portions on victimless crimes such as drug possession, prostitution and not wearing a seat belt.

I suggest that the governments allow private organizations to police their jurisdictions. This does not mean they have to eliminate their public, government-funded police, but they can legalize and promote private police. The governments can do this by certifying private companies as private police according to objective guidelines. Thus, if a company ever abuses its power it would have its certification revoked.

Thus, private citizens can form organizations that have the power to arrest and detain violent criminals. These private organizations can compliment the governmental institutions already in place, and thus drastically reduce violent crime.

Who would pay for these private police? I suggest the criminals. Whenever a court convicts a violent criminal, I suggest that the sentence includes a requirement that the criminal pay for the costs of their crime and conviction, including all costs associated with investigating the crime, catching the criminal, detaining the criminal, and convicting the criminal. Make the criminals pay for the police and courts, not the taxpayers.

I suggest the private police organizations only get paid for each criminal they arrest who gets convicted. That would eliminate any incentive to arrest people without sufficient evidence and probable cause.

Private police would work better than governmental police for numerous reasons. For one, they would have more incentive to catch the criminals; whereas governmental police get paid either way. Beyond that, the private police would save the taxpayers money, and thus would not have the funding issues of the government’s police.

Private police would do a better job for the same reason private schools do a better job than public schools. While parents have to pick up the tab for private schools, we can shove the cost of law enforcement onto the deserving criminals who make it necessary.

What do you think?