3 ms·

One radical solution woudl be to merge all the little police departments into a single state police and have federal standards for reporting, training, fire arm

One radical solution woudl be to merge all the little police departments into a single state police and have federal standards for reporting, training, fire arm handling.

pjc50 11y ago
I have mixed opinions about this idea; here in Scotland (population roughly that of Colorado) the police force was consolidated into a single national entity and since then there has been a number of serious problems (including the brief adoption of a policy of routinely carrying guns unnecessarily). But it does seem that there are too many little police departments in the US which are unaccountable. Or, worse, accountable only to racists.
hga 11y ago
It's sufficiently radical that I think it would be worth going to (civil) war over. It's an predicate to imposing anarcho-tyranny, where people and areas that don't, for example, vote "correctly" have their police protection largely withdrawn. This has happened in the U.K. and D.C. in recent memory. It's also hard to see how this would make the police any more accountable to the people.
- debacle 11y ago
  I agree with you on the first point, but: > where people and areas that don't, for example, vote "correctly" have their police protection largely withdrawn. The NYPD has actually done this in NYC more than once in recent memory.
  - hga 11y ago
    I'll bet. One thing you notice about these events in recent history is that they happened to already disarmed people (NYC < 60K each long and handgun licenses, D.C. all aside from grandfathering, U.K. pretty much all except shotguns, plus effective self-defense has long been illegal), it's most effective that way.
- spacecowboy_lon 11y ago
  Lots of small police departments make it easier for bad apples to hide. Larger police forces have larger viability and its easier to enforce national standards eg UK style fire arms training. You also increase efficiency and reduce costs by state wide procurement.

One radical solution woudl be to merge all the little police departments into a single state police and have federal standards for reporting, training, fire arm handling.

pjc50 11y ago

I have mixed opinions about this idea; here in Scotland (population roughly that of Colorado) the police force was consolidated into a single national entity and since then there has been a number of serious problems (including the brief adoption of a policy of routinely carrying guns unnecessarily). But it does seem that there are too many little police departments in the US which are unaccountable. Or, worse, accountable only to racists.

hga 11y ago

It's sufficiently radical that I think it would be worth going to (civil) war over. It's an predicate to imposing anarcho-tyranny, where people and areas that don't, for example, vote "correctly" have their police protection largely withdrawn. This has happened in the U.K. and D.C. in recent memory. It's also hard to see how this would make the police any more accountable to the people.

debacle 11y ago
I agree with you on the first point, but: > where people and areas that don't, for example, vote "correctly" have their police protection largely withdrawn. The NYPD has actually done this in NYC more than once in recent memory.
- hga 11y ago
  I'll bet. One thing you notice about these events in recent history is that they happened to already disarmed people (NYC < 60K each long and handgun licenses, D.C. all aside from grandfathering, U.K. pretty much all except shotguns, plus effective self-defense has long been illegal), it's most effective that way.
spacecowboy_lon 11y ago
Lots of small police departments make it easier for bad apples to hide. Larger police forces have larger viability and its easier to enforce national standards eg UK style fire arms training. You also increase efficiency and reduce costs by state wide procurement.