Kingstonian
Well-Known Member
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Interesting. Decisions on police numbers are made at a more local level.I think outsiders generally fail to see how MANY largely redundant police forces we have in the US.
I mostly work alongside federal law enforcement and I think most people are starting to recognise that there are over a hundred different federal government departments fielding licensed peace officers.
But at a local level, you have City police, County Police and State Police - all policing the same neighborhood and doing essentially the same job. Blue is normally City Police, brown is County police and the cowboys are state police. Federal police usually don’t wear uniforms or are in tactical type gear (like NASA police).
It’s the worst kept secret that if we ever privatized the police, the CEO would sack 50-70% off the staff, streamline it and do a better job at meeting the mission. The problem has been that over the last 50 years every politician has campaigned on a slogan of expanding police numbers without thought to what they will actually do.
In the UK police numbers have declined and cheaper, cut-price versions of police have been recruited. We also have elected police commissioners. Voter turn out is low. Police commissioners do not seem to do anything. It seems to mostly be another opportunity for political patronage, not quite a sinecure - but not far off.