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UK Plans Private Police Force
An anonymous reader writes "'Private companies could take responsibility for investigating crimes, patrolling neighborhoods and even detaining suspects under a radical privatization plan,' The Guardian reports. 'The contract is the largest on police privatization so far, with a potential value of £1.5bn over seven years, rising to a possible £3.5bn depending on how many other forces get involved.' A worrying development in a country with an ever-increasing culture of surveillance and intrusive policing."
RoboCop!
If you want news from today, you have to come back tomorrow.
And so Britain sinks further into Fascism.
The story lists the tasks that might be taken over by private companies:
The breathtaking list of policing activities up for grabs includes investigating crimes, detaining suspects, developing cases, responding to and investigating incidents, supporting victims and witnesses, managing high-risk individuals, patrolling neighbourhoods, managing intelligence, managing engagement with the public, as well as more traditional back-office functions, such as managing forensics, providing legal services, managing the vehicle fleet, finance and human resources
That seems like pretty much the entire job description short of actual Arrest. (The Detaining Suspects bit may mean running the jail, or arrest, its unclear).
The good side of this is you might have more luck suing a corporation than the constabulary. (No clue about UK law here, just a guess). And when the public becomes unsatisfied its much easier for city government to cancel the contract and find a new firm. The new guys will probably be on their best behavior for a few months at least.
Its not unheard of to find private police forces employed by some jurisdictions in the US. And its not unheard of the have entire companies fired. An incident in a Seattle transit hub eventually lead to fines and term termination of their contract.
Sig Battery depleted. Reverting to safe mode.
Isn't there a Monty Python sketch for this?
As usual, Soulskill has posted yet another article pushing nonsense gleaned from a quick look at a headline.
"The UK" is not getting a private police force. Two small police forces in England are planning on contracting out patrolling some areas like city centre shopping districts to private firms.
As it turns out, it's not actually legally possible for them to do this, so it's unlikely to happen any time soon.
...and mega-corporation Omni Consumer Products enters into a contract with the city to run the police force.
Almost all law enforcement was private. Outside of a small number of elected officials and their deputies, Law was generally enforced (in the Anglosphere anyway) by citizens. Organized government controlled police forces are a relatively recent phenomenon.
-- Two men say they're Jesus. One of them must be wrong. - Dire Straits
The Metropolitan Police Force was one of Sir Robert Peel's (an actual real Tory, and not just the fake post-Thatcher kind) greatest achievements, and a model for police forces the world over. It was precisely because of fragmentation that Peel went this route, producing a stunningly effective law enforcement agency.
The world's burning. Moped Jesus spotted on I50. Details at 11.
around the 5th of November.
From whats coming out of the Leveson Inquiry I think Murdoch thought he already brought the MET :-(
Police states never bother the rich.
This must be a rerun ...
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=k6CkltzGAxY
Occupy Corporate Police!
Instead of catching small time thieves, they could go after the bankers.
One can dream
Don't fight for your country, if your country does not fight for you.
makes it easier to F*up the chain of evidence or brake the law in investigating the courts may throughout evidence or the full case.
Now what if on of there rent a cops in the act of detaining and interviewing suspects keeps them from attorney under the thinking that we are not real cops and so you don't have the right to one.
Or
a very guilty rapist is set free as this private companies did not comply with the Rules of evidence. Lets say they dumped parts of forensics on a contractor and they used a subcontractor who did not have the right certifications.
This a is a very bad place to be playing the blame the contractors game.
Because you will have TWICE the ability to obscure any abuses.
Was it the government oversight bureau that was responsible? (no)
Was it the private company that was responsible? (no)
Because the company will have been found to have been acting on guidelines from the government that were written with incorrect input from the company that was based upon a faulty understanding of the government's requirements. Systemic errors were found that will be addressed at the next board meeting with the government regulators.
Meanwhile, the company hires lobbyists to ensure that no matter who is voted in they will still be dependent upon the "campaign contributions" of the company.
'Snow Crash' Choose whixh private jail you want to stay at, the Hoosegow or the Clink.
Silence is a state of mime.
So we're going to get an army of thugs & vigilantes who were unable to qualify for entering the police force, 'policing' us.
There are an increasing number of cars having dashcam's installed as standard and aftermarket installations which can help with insurance claims, perhaps we should start looking at equipping everyone with pedestriancams.
. . . and into private police uniforms where they belong!
Bobby Helmets, the new look for Hoodies, Next Generation.
Dim: Well. Well, well. Well, well, well, well, if it isn't little Alex. Long time no viddy, droog. How goes?
Alex: It's... it's impossible. I don't believe it.
Georgie: Evidence of the old glazzies. Nothing up their sleeves. No magic, little Alex. A job for two, who are now of job age. The police.
Schroedinger's Brexit: The UK is both in and out of the EU at the same time!
Just like every other privatization plan -- the goal is to offload the pension and health care. It won't save any money now, but it limits liability in the future. Often plans like this cost more in the present. If there were sane pension plans offered in the private sector then they couldn't do this -- but the private sector doesn't reward employees for faithful service beyond giving them two kicks in the hind quarters when they get to old (expensive) and are sacked. When private sector workers feel like fodder for businesses it's natural for them to think public sector should be too. Long ago, public sector jobs used to pay less than private sector but the benefits were better --- then somewhere when the public sector had to pick up a significant IT presence they wanted to get talent and had to pay for it. Because IT folks typically work on a short time horizon and retirement benefits didn't matter (moreover, they were sure they could do better than the market, better than the housing market etc because they are arrogant and just smart enough to be stupid) -- so public sector had to compete on salary and now they have to cut the long term benefits to fund the shift. Workers want money now at the expense of benefits later -- privatization is an easier way to that compensation configuration than changing contracts etc.
Horrors of privatizing government services that citizens have a right to. Next they'll probably think medicine should be privatized; but we all know that could never work.
Dispatch: Hello, what is the emergency?
You: Someone is breaking into my house!
Dispatch: I see. Please hold while I lookup your account.
You: What? Hurry, I think he's inside!
Dispatch: Okay, it looks like you have our Basic State protection. We can dispatch an officer within 20 minutes. If you upgrade now to our RapidResponse plan for only 10.99 a month for the first year, we can dispatch an officer immediately.
You: Yeah, whatever, just send them now!
Dispatch: I'll be glad to ma'am. May I please have your credit card number?
You: No, it's in the room with the robber.
Dispatch: I understand. I'll go ahead and send out our standard officer. You should expect one within 25 to 30 minutes. You can call back at anytime to upgrade to our RapidResponse plan. Don't forget to ask about our low crime rate discount.
You: He's got a gun!
Dispatch: Have a good day, ma'am!
Brits that love to berate your colonial brothers for our loss of rights will continue to be even less endowed. Your CCTV system is much more extensive than ours already, yet you continually say otherwise.
Next up, 999 call-handling relocates to Bangalore. "Welcome to 999, your call is important to us...please hold." The perfect accompaniment to privatised policing.
Would it not be easier to bring back National Service? Now, get off my lawn!
Ever since the Tories came into power, they've become almost a hysterical tabloid (albeit a left wing one). Everything is The Tories fault, you'd better check under your childrens bed before you tuck them in, Thatcher could be lying there in waiting (she took their milk, now she's come for their souls!!!).
Hugely out of context quotes, calls for people to resign on a daily basis (usually for petty issues), an insane amount of spin on almost every domestic political article. They've become a parody of themselves.
Still, I lost the last traces of respect I had for the Grauniad when they published a piece by Gerry Adams who was criticising the British army for civilian casualties in Afganistan. Every comment that pointed out the hypocrisy of this got deleted (I'd estimate about 50% of them were deleted).
Comment removed based on user account deletion
Investigations of wrongdoing on part of a police officer will be incredibly biased if it is ran by a private security firm, The government doesn't like to admit its mistakes, you think a private company would be more willing to do so? I smell abuse and corruption coming to a town near you.
http://whyihatecca.blogspot.com/2011/06/fbi-investigates-blatant-corruption-in.html
http://articles.cnn.com/2009-02-23/justice/pennsylvania.corrupt.judges_1_detention-judges-number-of-juvenile-offenders?_s=PM:CRIME
http://archive.feedblitz.com/715643/~4042404
This is just the tip of the iceberg.
Silence is a state of mime.
It is called an HOA, or Homeowner's Association
A word fitly spoken is like apples of gold in pictures of silver --Proverbs 25:11
when this goes through, then instead of having to deal with a cop who has a 50/50 chance of acting like a dick just because he can, it will be a corporate drone who has a 100% chance of acting like a dick if it leads to profit.
They need Project Janus
private police, private health care, private army....why do we need a spending government? to engage in never ending wars? uk=fascism=socialism=corporatism
Ostensibly I vote for the county sheriff. But that's it. He hires whomever he likes for his workforce. And that's just the county. Where I live there's multiple overlapping police forces: City of Raleigh, City-County BI, Capital District, Capital-District Federal, County, State Police, Highway Patrol, SBI. And I get precisely zero say in what they do or how they do it or who they use to do it. I don't see how privatizing it is materially worse.
Yes private police companies that only have one primary motive to make money for their shareholders, what could possibly go wrong with that?
... coming soon
It's often a short term cash injection and a poisoned chalice for the next government. It's perfect for "conservative" governments that are really only interested in what they can get in the short term and where strong rivalry to get leadership of the party means that a leader is going to hate their successor anyway so doesn't mind handing over a poisoned chalice to a member of their own party.
The latter can apply to Westminster style party politics in general, but those that like to call themselves "conservative" in front of the voters tend to bare their backstabbing knives where the public can see them a bit more than others that depend a bit more on public opinion within their internal party struggles.
Of course a government that makes a radical change such as privitising law enforcement is not conservative in any dictionary even if they like to pretend they are.
The Brits are no strangers to privateers actually.
Excuse me, but please get off my Pennisetum Clandestinum, eh!
They did it for their prisons. Might as well do it to the cops too.
Thatcher, Thatcher, Thatcher, Thatcher,
Thatcher, Thatcher, Thatcher, Thatcher,
Thatcher, Thatcher, Thatcher, Thatcher,
Reagan, Reagan!
(with people in Guy Fawkes masks dancing, of course)
Contrary to the popular belief, there indeed is no God.
As long as the people believe in some fashion that the state is overall a positive thing, there will be support for whichever action the rulers of that state choose to take. This trust index is shaped by many factors and is the more opinions the people have (access to) the more likely it changes.
Instituting a private police takes away a big chunk of trust from the state. Safety usually trumps just about everything (including privacy, civil rights) and most people in "democratic states" such as the UK, gladly conform to intrusions on their lives as long as they are made by the safety-provider, the state. When the monopoly of the safety-provider is broken, demands on the people will be harder to enforce.
Why should I pay my taxes to the state if BobbyCorps Inc (limited liability) provides a service more to my liking (i.e. takes harsher measures against a group of people I particularly dislike). Why should I go to war for this state if it isn't protecting my neighborhood. I'll more likely invest my limited time and/or money in BobbyCorps.
Then there's the whole agenda issue. The state polices have very explicit agendas and admission rules. Granted, they are usually subverted to some extent (as is everything), but the majority of the people usually trust the police with their safety. Instances of people revolting over an arrest are (statistically) rare and brief. What happens when a RozzerCopper Ltd. "officer" arrests a BobbyCorps executive? Or will they not be allowed to do so because it is a person out of jurisdiction?
That brings us to the power structure issue. If one particular instance of state police runs into trouble (maybe they are outgunned, maybe they have no jurisdiction over that matter) the state usually provides backup up to and including the army. Will the state, with a separate agenda from BobbyCorp, also provide unlimited backup to them? Even against the wishes of the RozzerCopper administrators?
Not enitirely new, The East India Company effectively ran a private army.
I don't know why everybody is so worried. Thi already happened with great results by using ex soldiers based in the LA underground.
From what I remember, they always caught the bad guys and even though there was often a lot of shooting, nobody actually died.
They even had a very good equal opportunities policy from what I remember.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=T2Ezphg9gjM
Having grown up in Belfast, I have to say that in the UK we already had this before. They were called the paramilitaries back then.
People don't really realize this, but back during the 70's and 80's the police in Northern Ireland were basically an ineffectual group when it came to dealing with actual street crime. They only dealt with the "big ticket" problems that were usually caused by the paramilitaries fighting among themselves. When it came to dealing with crime on the streets of Belfast it was actually those same paramilitary groups who did most of the meting out of punishments. Yes, they were judge, jury and executioner (sometimes literally) but the reason they did it is because "small time" criminals like burglars and even rapists would otherwise get away with it. I don't support their actions necessarily, but I honestly felt safer in the streets of Belfast at night during the 80's than I did when I moved to London in the early 90's.
Yes, I realize this is not the same situation; they are taking the current police force and privatizing it. What I do think though is that we will just end up with a police force that tends to be focused on the goals of its controlling group which is in turn focused primarily on a small area or a small list of "specially protected resources", which to my mind is not a million miles away from those same paramilitary groups I grew up around. They were focused on a small area and protected those resources they found valuable; others would be ignored or even destroyed just as quickly by those same people.
Truly, I don't think this is a good idea because the opportunities for corruption within a privatized system is so much higher than one that has to accede to a very large central controlling authority (the government). Now, whether the government itself is corrupt... that's a completely different discussion.
First, they were called Blackwater. Then, they renamed themselves as Xe.
Now, they're called "Academi".
It's funny that they're still in operation. They've been caught smuggling weapons, committing murders, pedophilia and so on, but still keep going strong!
First we have to ask why are they doing it? And there are two possible answers: a) It is a way to make police work cheaper and b) it is dogma, that the state should not do what a private company can do for the state.
In the UK it looks like both arguments are used. The problem with cheap policemen can be seen in Latin-America. If you do not pay your police force well, they are more vulnerable to corruption. In addition private companies always lower the standards, we have seen that in Iraq (e.g. Blackwater/Xe) and any place they hired "security" to protect property.
The second problem with the step to privatized government tasks is the stability of the state and its primary tasks. The state has the monopoly on violence. If any part of that is outsourced it looses this monopoly. If you look back in history when this monopoly was developed, it was done to increase the coherence of states, it was also a necessity for national states and it made it safer to travel which had positive effects on all sort of things, like trade and education. If we change that back, we will end up with something like the kings had before they developed conscription. This cold result in a state begging for policemen.
Honestly, I find that move totally misguided, like many things they did in the UK recently.
...and the "police corporation"