Town Ditches Police Department for Private Security and Crime Drops by 2/3

Is it time to remove federal, state and local governemtns from policing?

  • Yes.

    Votes: 4 66.7%
  • No.

    Votes: 2 33.3%

  • Total voters
    6
That's because police departments today are generally policing for profit, not for crime prevention. Eliminate the financial motive and you get real policing.

Texas town sees crime drop by almost two thirds after firing police hiring private security Rare

Except it's BS, you should have posted this link from your link.

No, Sharpstown, Texas, Did Not Fire its Police Force and Bring About a Huge Drop in Crime

No Sharpstown Texas Did Not Fire its Police Force and Bring About a Huge Drop in Crime Texas Monthly

Ya really need to read your links especially when they tell you in black and white that they are wrong.
 
That's because police departments today are generally policing for profit, not for crime prevention. Eliminate the financial motive and you get real policing.

Texas town sees crime drop by almost two thirds after firing police hiring private security Rare

Except it's BS, you should have posted this link from your link.

No, Sharpstown, Texas, Did Not Fire its Police Force and Bring About a Huge Drop in Crime

No Sharpstown Texas Did Not Fire its Police Force and Bring About a Huge Drop in Crime Texas Monthly

Ya really need to read your links especially when they tell you in black and white that they are wrong.
Beat me by 4 minutes...
 
That's because police departments today are generally policing for profit, not for crime prevention. Eliminate the financial motive and you get real policing.

Texas town sees crime drop by almost two thirds after firing police hiring private security Rare

Except it's BS, you should have posted this link from your link.

No, Sharpstown, Texas, Did Not Fire its Police Force and Bring About a Huge Drop in Crime

No Sharpstown Texas Did Not Fire its Police Force and Bring About a Huge Drop in Crime Texas Monthly

Ya really need to read your links especially when they tell you in black
That's because police departments today are generally policing for profit, not for crime prevention. Eliminate the financial motive and you get real policing.

Texas town sees crime drop by almost two thirds after firing police hiring private security Rare

Except it's BS, you should have posted this link from your link.

No, Sharpstown, Texas, Did Not Fire its Police Force and Bring About a Huge Drop in Crime

No Sharpstown Texas Did Not Fire its Police Force and Bring About a Huge Drop in Crime Texas Monthly

Ya really need to read your links especially when they tell you in black and white that they are wrong.
Beat me by 4 minutes...

5 but who's counting, LOL
 
Well, that was almost fun while it lasted. At least the agenda is quite clear.
 
That's because police departments today are generally policing for profit, not for crime prevention. Eliminate the financial motive and you get real policing.

Texas town sees crime drop by almost two thirds after firing police hiring private security Rare

Having worked security myself I can tell you security contractors don't have any law enforcement training. So that the crime rate seemed to have dropped a lot is more likely about how security personnel don't know a crime when they see it so there's fewer criminal stops.

In other words, if you sit around all day long and never do anything law enforcement-wise the crime rate would seem to drop 100%. But not because there was no crime.
 
Texas Town Experiences 61 Drop in Crime After Firing Their Police Department The Free Thought Project

Texas Town Gets Rid of Police Dept. Hires SEAL Security Guess What Reportedly Happened to Crime TheBlaze.com

For most of America's history, there was NO police force, the only ones known were the Redcoats occupying and harassing the citizenry (from which cometh the Third Amendment). Today, we have local police forces that once again are out of control, and immune to review.

Third Amendment to the United States Constitution:
No Soldier shall, in time of peace be quartered in any house, without the consent of the Owner, nor in time of war, but in a manner to be prescribed by law.

So, what did Sharpstown do?

Sharpstown, TX — Sharpstown is a Texas community, located just southwest of Houston, and the way they maintain security in this community has gotten our attention.

In 2012, they fired their cops.

The Sharpstown Civic Association then hired S.E.A.L. Security Solutions, a private firm, to patrol their streets.

The statist fearmongers will have you believe that “privatizing” anything would result in mass chaos and a Mad Max scenarios of warlords and rampant crime. But they are wrong.

“Since we’ve been in there, an independent crime study that they’ve had done [indicates] we’ve reduced the crime by 61%” in just 20 months, says James Alexander, Director of Operations for SEAL.

Government police, despite not acting like it, are still part of the government. This means that any progressive change for the better takes ten times longer than it would in the private sector; if it happens at all. Government police are not driven by efficiency and threats from liability, as neither one of these things are needed when you have a tax farm to rob when things get tight.

Contrary to the government apparatus, private police, must be efficient as well as safe, for one small mistake or claim could end their entire operation. If an inefficiency is spotted within the system, changes must be implemented swiftly to avoid the loss of revenue.

The reason for the success rate of SEAL Security is that they can see a problem and quickly adapt versus trying to spin the rusty cogs of the bureaucratic process. And that is exactly what SEAL did in Sharpstown.

According to guns.com, Alexander cites the continuous patrol of SEAL’s officers in their assigned neighborhoods as opposed to the strategy of intermittent presence that the constable embraced. “On a constable patrol contract, it’s either a 70/30 or an 80/20. Meaning they say they patrol your community 70 percent of the time, [while] 30 percent of the time they use for running calls out of your area or writing reports.”


Read more at Texas Town Experiences 61 Drop in Crime After Firing Their Police Department The Free Thought Project




town-fires-police-department-crime-drops.jpg
 
Josephine county Oregon is a good study on this. They lost theirs due to going broke about two years ago. While at first there WAS an uptick in crime citizen patrols have reduced it.
 
One of the biggest mistakes ever was allowing public law enforcement to form unions, this in turn as made them a powerful political lobby that many in government are beholden to. It is almost impossible to fire bad cops in this country because of union pressure. I am usually in favor of unions but only within the private sector. Time and time again as shown us that when we let the public sector like police and prison guards and teachers unionize we are asking for trouble. I think maybe it is about time for communities to either police their own community or to hire private security firms that they fire if they are not doing a good job.
 
One nit-picky point: The OP is wrong on one thing: America did in fact have police forces from very early on in the country's history, except that they weren't called "police" but were sheriffs, marshals, etc. Any sizable town had a sheriff and some deputy sheriffs, and as needed a sheriff could temporarily deputize a number of citizens to help maintain law and order.

Anyway, the OP story is a fascinating and instructive example of a town and its citizens replacing government workers with private contractors who do a better job at a lower cost.
 
Texas Town Experiences 61 Drop in Crime After Firing Their Police Department The Free Thought Project

Texas Town Gets Rid of Police Dept. Hires SEAL Security Guess What Reportedly Happened to Crime TheBlaze.com

For most of America's history, there was NO police force, the only ones known were the Redcoats occupying and harassing the citizenry (from which cometh the Third Amendment). Today, we have local police forces that once again are out of control, and immune to review.

Third Amendment to the United States Constitution:
No Soldier shall, in time of peace be quartered in any house, without the consent of the Owner, nor in time of war, but in a manner to be prescribed by law.

So, what did Sharpstown do?

Sharpstown, TX — Sharpstown is a Texas community, located just southwest of Houston, and the way they maintain security in this community has gotten our attention.

In 2012, they fired their cops.

The Sharpstown Civic Association then hired S.E.A.L. Security Solutions, a private firm, to patrol their streets.

The statist fearmongers will have you believe that “privatizing” anything would result in mass chaos and a Mad Max scenarios of warlords and rampant crime. But they are wrong.

“Since we’ve been in there, an independent crime study that they’ve had done [indicates] we’ve reduced the crime by 61%” in just 20 months, says James Alexander, Director of Operations for SEAL.

Government police, despite not acting like it, are still part of the government. This means that any progressive change for the better takes ten times longer than it would in the private sector; if it happens at all. Government police are not driven by efficiency and threats from liability, as neither one of these things are needed when you have a tax farm to rob when things get tight.

Contrary to the government apparatus, private police, must be efficient as well as safe, for one small mistake or claim could end their entire operation. If an inefficiency is spotted within the system, changes must be implemented swiftly to avoid the loss of revenue.

The reason for the success rate of SEAL Security is that they can see a problem and quickly adapt versus trying to spin the rusty cogs of the bureaucratic process. And that is exactly what SEAL did in Sharpstown.

According to guns.com, Alexander cites the continuous patrol of SEAL’s officers in their assigned neighborhoods as opposed to the strategy of intermittent presence that the constable embraced. “On a constable patrol contract, it’s either a 70/30 or an 80/20. Meaning they say they patrol your community 70 percent of the time, [while] 30 percent of the time they use for running calls out of your area or writing reports.”


Read more at Texas Town Experiences 61 Drop in Crime After Firing Their Police Department The Free Thought Project




town-fires-police-department-crime-drops.jpg


I think this is an excellent idea but could it be applied to large cities?
 
Texas Town Experiences 61 Drop in Crime After Firing Their Police Department The Free Thought Project

Texas Town Gets Rid of Police Dept. Hires SEAL Security Guess What Reportedly Happened to Crime TheBlaze.com

For most of America's history, there was NO police force, the only ones known were the Redcoats occupying and harassing the citizenry (from which cometh the Third Amendment). Today, we have local police forces that once again are out of control, and immune to review.

Third Amendment to the United States Constitution:
No Soldier shall, in time of peace be quartered in any house, without the consent of the Owner, nor in time of war, but in a manner to be prescribed by law.

So, what did Sharpstown do?

Sharpstown, TX — Sharpstown is a Texas community, located just southwest of Houston, and the way they maintain security in this community has gotten our attention.

In 2012, they fired their cops.

The Sharpstown Civic Association then hired S.E.A.L. Security Solutions, a private firm, to patrol their streets.

The statist fearmongers will have you believe that “privatizing” anything would result in mass chaos and a Mad Max scenarios of warlords and rampant crime. But they are wrong.

“Since we’ve been in there, an independent crime study that they’ve had done [indicates] we’ve reduced the crime by 61%” in just 20 months, says James Alexander, Director of Operations for SEAL.

Government police, despite not acting like it, are still part of the government. This means that any progressive change for the better takes ten times longer than it would in the private sector; if it happens at all. Government police are not driven by efficiency and threats from liability, as neither one of these things are needed when you have a tax farm to rob when things get tight.

Contrary to the government apparatus, private police, must be efficient as well as safe, for one small mistake or claim could end their entire operation. If an inefficiency is spotted within the system, changes must be implemented swiftly to avoid the loss of revenue.

The reason for the success rate of SEAL Security is that they can see a problem and quickly adapt versus trying to spin the rusty cogs of the bureaucratic process. And that is exactly what SEAL did in Sharpstown.

According to guns.com, Alexander cites the continuous patrol of SEAL’s officers in their assigned neighborhoods as opposed to the strategy of intermittent presence that the constable embraced. “On a constable patrol contract, it’s either a 70/30 or an 80/20. Meaning they say they patrol your community 70 percent of the time, [while] 30 percent of the time they use for running calls out of your area or writing reports.”


Read more at Texas Town Experiences 61 Drop in Crime After Firing Their Police Department The Free Thought Project




town-fires-police-department-crime-drops.jpg


I think this is an excellent idea but could it be applied to large cities?

At the end of the day, a privatized police force is no better than a governmental police force in terms of resisting against abuses of power.
 
It is also necessary to note that the link in the OP is actually very untrue. Sharpstown is not a municipality in Texas. It is simply a community in Houston.

Sharpstown is a master-planned community in southwest Houston, Texas. Sharpstown has never had its own schools, fire department, mayor, post offices, city council, or police force. It is under the jurisdiction of the Houston Police Department, just like downtown Houston, River Oaks, and Fifth Ward.

Second, they didn’t fire anybody, technically speaking. They just refused to renew a yearly contract with the Harris County Constables’ Office for extra security patrols. (Sharpstown residents can still be ticketed and/or arrested by Harris County constables, just as they could by an HPD cop. I am sure some resident will try to pull the “You can’t bust me, we fired you,” card soon.) In addition to patrol, process-serving, and court security, Harris County constables will contract with neighborhoods for supplemental patrols, but their services do not come cheap. The Braeswood Place neighborhood, in near southwest Houston, pays $360,000 yearly for five deputy constables to patrol its confines.

And then there’s that alleged 61 percent reduction in crime. That number apparently originates from an “independent study” conducted by the Sharpstown Civic Association, a group with a vested interest in combating its image as a haven for crime. According to a more objective source—Houston’s NBC affiliate—Sharpstown had the most total crimes of any Houston neighborhood in 2013, the first full year of the S.E.A.L. patrols.


No Sharpstown Texas Did Not Fire its Police Force and Bring About a Huge Drop in Crime Texas Monthly
 

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