I generally dislike, mistrust, and resent police in general more than the average person. When someone talks of cops, I think of the street cops going around bullying kids and attacking non-violent marijuana smokers. But I support the police–or all people for that matter–who attempt to stop violent criminals, such as rapists and murders. Of course, I don’t interact with honest homicide detectives as much I interact with angry traffic cops who will throw me in jail over a bad taillight if I don’t suck up enough.
Regardless, I think a police force must work most effectively at the most local level. At the most local level, the police organization can adapt to the local environment better. Additionally, locally focused officers and agents can more fully get to know the local community and its people.
I also think police forces would work much more effectively with a lot more funding. Obviously, the administration could benefit from more funds. Most importantly, they could put the funding towards paying police officers much, much more. You get what you pay for. With better pay, they could hire police officers with much more education and credentials. Additionally, they could put much stricter rules against police officers who receive complaints and such.
Unfortunately, two main obstacles obstruct the implementation of better funding for police forces. Firstly, bureaucracies, such as government-run police forces, make money by wasting money. Secondly, taxpayers will resist large increases in funding, which will mean the funding will always fall up short.
I see a possible solution as the creation of private police. By that I mean local, non-governmental organizations could form to stop and catch violent criminals. I would only want them in charge of violent crime. I feel only violent crime warrants any danger in allowing a private organization to use force.
Of course, even now most private organizations and citizens technically have the legal power to forcefully stop violent criminals, so it wouldn’t change that much. For example, if I see a rapists attack a woman, even the government has granted me the legal right to forcefully stop him if I so wish.
We simply need effective organizations to form for the specific purpose of fighting violent crime. For that to happen, they need funding. To avoid the flaws of bureaucracy, I think we need to balance the funding with effectiveness. In other words, I think we can pay the private police a certain amount for each violent criminal they catch who gets convicted. The worse the crime, the higher the bounty.
I doubt taxpayers would mind paying for the actual catching of violent criminals as opposed to pointlessly throwing money at a bureaucratic police force. Nonetheless, I suggest making the violent criminals pay for it. Let it act as a fine; instead of going to the state, the fine goes to the private policing organization that caught the violent criminal.
This is all just a rough idea and not a formal proposal. So I really do want to know what you readers think. Please leave comments.
Also, I want to specify that I would only want private policing organizations used to enforce violent crime, such as rape, murder, sexual assault, battery and so forth. I have no interest in using the government to hire people to go around violently catching non-violent criminals; the risks of that do not make up for the benefits, in my opinion.
Finally, I think we need to make the policing organizations follow strict regulations so that they do not use unnecessary or excessive force. They would need to be held strictly accountable for misconduct and false arrests. We want to make sure we do not create a monster worse than the monsters we have created it to catch.
What do you think?
