Podcast 298 Should We Defund the Police?

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Is there something better or is defunding the police the answer?  Is there something we can do to help law enforcement? 

Today:

There is talk about defunding police everywhere.  I have friends in California law enforcement that are taking a 10% pay cut across the board.  Minneapolis is talking about defunding their police force all together.

Is there a way we can make the police better without a radical change?  Is there an answer if we disband a police department and still have law enforcement?

I don’t know what will happen in Minneapolis, but I know it isn’t good. 

There are a lot of problems with police officers and departments most people don’t know about.  I’ll give you a bunch of those and some of the easy things we could do to fix it.

Most things can be fixed.  Like all problems, all we need is time and money to make things better.  While that seems easy when we have government money it isn’t.  That’s tax money.  And the tax money won’t be going to make someone else rich or more powerful.  So you know they will fight it tooth and nail.

If we burn down the police department and fire everyone is there a way to have private come in and take over?  It might be possible, and we might bet a better product.

How good is the police force right now?  What could we do to make them better? 

We talk about all that and more on this podcast. 

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Current Problems with Police:

• Police don’t work for the people
• Us versus them mentality 
• Public service tenure, almost impossible to fire
• Seniority based placement and pay
• Good old boy society called the thin blue line
• Good cops out ASAP
• Lack of Training 
• Can’t go to another department and retire
• Golden handcuffs 
• Politically appointed chiefs 
• Who’s the customer?
• Costs associated, financial and personal, of doing good cop work

Things we can fix:

• Lack of Training
  • Required Reading
  • Physical Requirements (PT Tests) and PT after shifts 
  • Mandatory training 
  • Mandatory classes on law enforcement 
  • Basic LEO in Texas requires 643 hours of training (16 weeks)
  • Ongoing training is only 40 hours every two years 
• Us Vs. Them
  • Mandatory side jobs or volunteer in the community they police 
• Good Officers Out
  • Be able to rate and work with other good cops 
  • Bottom performing cops should be let go with performance being defined by the community they police 
• Cop Tenure 
  • Contract renewals 
  • Mandatory time off
  • Mandatory Psych visits 
  • Mandatory PT Tests
  • People change every 5 to 10 years, and we never reevaluate if a cop should still be a cop or not
• Golden Handcuffs 
  • Private or state pensions/retirement
  • Private or state health insurance 
  • Contract renewals every 5 years (chance to go to another department)
  • Make changing departments normal
• Time Off 
  • Mandatory Vacations 
  • Mandatory time off for training 
  • Time on and time off cycles 
  • 3 months on 1 month off?

Privatize Police?

• Cops are Contractors with 1 year contracts 
• People rate police interactions for renewal of contracts for police company and individual officers 
• Cops pass a test to renew their contract 
• The people become the customer again
• Private military was cheaper than our military and in some ways better 
• Required training, lots of training that is on the officer and company to get done
• Cops responsible and can change every year 
• Less administrative personnel 
• Specialized personnel that get paid according to their specialties, less and more
• Opportunity to move up and down 
• Cycle time off for training and time off 
• California doing with private patrol industry 

Screwed Up

• Minneapolis
  • 58 Square Miles
  • 430,000 people (use to be 521,000)
  • 800 Sworn officers and 300 civilians
  • Average for a big city for violent crime rates 
  • But Minneapolis has over 20 gangs with over 1,000 gang members. Police say gangs account for at least half of the violent crime in Minneapolis
  • Budget $193.3 Million this year
• Defunding Problems:
  • Where do 800 Officers and 300 employees go?  What do they do?
  • 911 is a privilege that might be going away.  Who answers that call?  Literally
  • New Department? Who is going to staff it?  Where are you going to get 800 officers?
  • Everyone switches hats
  • Real change takes a really long time
  • Crisis thinking and emotional reactions will not be good 

Improving Police

• Pursuit of Excellence 
  • The best trait of a police officer 
  • Real Leadership is needed everywhere 

Thanks for listening, don’t forget to check out the Shooter’s Club, and if you need ammo check out Lucky Gunner.

Stay Safe, 

Ben

P.S.  I just set up a self-defense handgun course for Sep 2020 in San Antonio, check it out