DISQUS

Waramess · 4 months ago

So many good postings; and on a Saturday morning.

Best postings I have read in a long time

Apostate Guardianista · 4 months ago

I urge anyone who is interested in the history of how we got into this mess to read 'The Abolition of Liberty' by Peter Hitchens - been out a few years and more relevant every day.

Peter · 4 months ago

An excellent and timely posting.

As it stands, government-run policing will never give value for money because:

1) The police aren't accountable to the public in any meaningful form - look at how they are funded for a start
2) Much of their time is wasted on victimless crimes - recreational drug use being the most obvious
3) Inevitably they will be mired in meaningless bureaucracy and organisational politics
4) The system is centralised and inflexible, largely driven by politically inspired Home Office targets

hyufd · 4 months ago

The police can never be fully privatized as it is enforcing the laws of the state, even if some of its services are provided by the private sector. Also, while the rich can afford private security services, the rest of society needs an effective police force to protect them.

hyufd · 4 months ago

The police can never be fully privatized as they are enforcing the laws of the state. Also, while the rich can always afford private security, the rest of society will always need police protection.

scottfreeman89 · 4 months ago

The problem with private policing is that until government actually takes action to promote it, they will always be extremely limited in their effectiveness. Private police cannot carry weapons, they cannot make arrests beyond ordinary 'citizens arrests', they cannot conduct searches or serve warrants, or take people in for questioning, they cannot use lights/sirens or break the speed limit. The list goes on. Most of all, though, they do not have the same institutional protection that the government police do. If a police officer wrongly arrests somebody, chances are absolutely nothing will happen to him. If a private police officer wrongly arrests somebody, or defends himself ever so slightly more than the government police/courts think is reasonable, he's in big trouble.

Private and government police powers need to be at parity for true competition to take place. It's telling, though, that even on this uneven playing field private police are becoming ever more popular - despite increases in funding for state police.

"The police can never be fully privatized as they are enforcing the laws of the state. Also, while the rich can always afford private security, the rest of society will always need police protection."

Why not? Why does the fact the laws originate from the state mean that police cannot be private? What makes you think that poor people, less the tax burden of government police, could not afford private police?

Bryce · 4 months ago

I disagree about the comment about the rich being the only ones to afford private security.
First of all, many new products and services are expensive when they first enter the market, but the high profits send signals to other businessmen and entrepreneur-type people, to start other private security businesses, and the entrance of new businesses and the competition will cause prices to fall over time to where most people can afford it. Economically, it's a mistake to assume the prices will never change. How much more could people afford it if they could keep the taxes that pay for the police? Also, private security is more flexible - you can choose what level of service you get, whether it be a personal bodyguard, a high[tech security system, constant neighborhood patrols, etc. You can still get better service from a private company if you only call them after a crime, that's all the police usually do. You're right that private companies won't enforce laws of the state, but this will result in more freedom as the laws that are arbitrary and calling things crimes that do not violate the rights of others will decrease as more people use private security. Eventually we might reach a point where people cease to want any public police, whose only reason for existence is because you think we need people to use non-defensive force in order for us to be safe. How many of the laws the government is enforcing only exist so the government has an excuse to take your money and freedom? Without government police, private security firms would not do this as it would be bad for business to not give customers what they want.

PECB · 4 months ago

To those concerned about private security effectiveness being limited due to constraints imposed by the "Official Police" and "Legal System". Well -- let them operate outside those constraints according to a strictly enforced contract between them and those that hire them. If the community that hires the private security services of an organization wants them to have various rights and powers (including against the established and entrenched "Official Law Enforcer"), then let them. You might find the various Politicos and such suddenly behaving cordially to their constituents and truly representing their constituents' interests and acting positively on their behalf.

Robert · 4 months ago

We may just be seeing the start of private-sector provision of services traditionally thought of as government services as described in Chapter 11 of "For a New Liberty", the 1978 Libertarian manifesto. That chapter describes how private policing would likely ultimately look. This could be an exciting development.