Private Police: First US state to outlaw enforcement agencies within their state (local, city and...
...county) from being staffed with government employees and requiring all towns, cities, and counties in their state (as well as the state itself with its own state police) to only employ private security guard firms to provide them police protection and private detective agencies to provide them police detective services (e.g., homicide investigations). The private security firms' guards and private detective agency's detectives being deputized as lawful law enforcement officers for the towns, cities, counties, or the entire state. To prevent local favoritism (and pressure) and to enable local politicians to dispassionately deal with the private security guard firms, no private security guard firm, which has its corporate headquarters located in the state and/or has made campaign contributions to any politician, political candidate, or political party in the state, can bid for a law enforcement contract in the state. The state must provide a toll-free caller-ID-free telephone number for its citizens to complain to the state's attorney general about local and state law enforcement agencies. All law enforcement contracts must come up for review and renewal every year. These review panels must be open to the public (and thus the press) and allow members of the public to make public their complaints. The private security guard firms and private detective agencies are prohibited by law from striking and must work to insure smooth transition when being replaced by another private firm/agency.
[The idea that law enforcement is best done by government employees is erroneous. As has been shown time and time again, it is extremely hard to get rid of bad government workers. Government unions couldn't care less about public safety but instead are only concerned with protecting their members from reduction in pay/benefits and being fired. As with all government jobs, incompetence is insulated from review as much as possible by government unions. By turning over law enforcement duties to private firms, this problem is eliminated. If local politicians don't like the service they're getting from a private firm, they can easily fire and replace them with another firm. If the public doesn't like the service, they can make their voices heard and complain at the annual review of these contracts. If another private company can come in with a lower bid and/or offer better service, the community benefits. Being replaceable, these private companies will work to improve the service to the communities they serve and to do so for the least money possible. There will naturally be a balancing act between the level of service and the cost of such services, but that's where local politicians and citizenry need to decide what's right for their communities.
And then there is innovation that commonly happens in the private sector and rarely happens in the public sector. Government bureaucracies rarely have an incentive to innovate. Private sector companies ALWAYS have an incentive to innovate. Finding new better ways to do old tasks. Finding ways to save money by streamlining and keeping up with technology. Finding ways to cut administration costs by spreading them over as many work contracts as possible. Every innovation means they can offer better and/or cheaper service to their customers and thus win more bids. This challenge seeks to bring such innovation to law enforcement.
Government police unions will fight this challenge every step of the way, but all it takes is ONE state in the USA to do it, show the benefits, and all the other states will soon follow suit. Not that government police unions will give up fighting against the privatization of law enforcement nor should they give up. Objections raised by government police unions is good for this whole process as it forces the private sector companies to keep on their toes and always improve. Every failing by a private sector company will be pounced upon by the government police unions as proof that private cops are a bad idea. This will force the private firms to immediately and effectively address such problems, put into practice procedures to insure it doesn't happen again, and become better because of it.
And when the last government-employee police department gets privatized, the competitive marketplace will have by then more than taken over the role of watchdog of these private firms and agencies since that is how competitors will be able to win away contracts from the private companies currently holding them. Every failing by a private company will be brought up by the salespersons of the other companies when they are all bidding for a law enforcement contract.]
Future Challenges: 1) First US state to do the above challenge by way of citizen-initiated state-wide referendum.
2) First major US state (population of 9 million or more) to do the original challenge.
3) First major US state (pop. of 9 million or more) to do the original challenge by way of citizen-initiated state-wide referendum.
4) First nation to do the original challenge.
First radio talk show host (likely fiscally conservative) to champion this challenge and:
5) Get the CEOs of three of the ten largest private security guard firms in the US to appear on the host's show to discuss how the above idea could be instituted in their state. To win this future challenge, the four of them must talk for at least a half hour on the show.
6) Get the leaders of three local Tea Party groups to appear on the host's show to discuss how the above idea could be instituted in their state. To win this future challenge, the four of them must talk for at least a half hour on the show.
7) Spearheads Future Challenge #1 and it wins at the ballot.
Discussion:
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