Police

[DavidOdden]

However, I'm 51 and I can't say the police have ever bothered me personally.

That is pretty much irrelevant to the question at hand. The question is whether competitive policing would be more efficient; the answer is it would be wrong, and that "efficiency" is a red herring in that the inefficiencies are in police not doing exclusively what they are supposed to do. That does not include traffic functions. I think you have misinterpreted the points of this thread: check the first post.

[Thomas M. Miovas Jr.]

I think you have misinterpreted the points of this thread: check the first post.

Well, I didn't misinterpret the thread, but I was bringing in other issues. I certainly agree that if expenses are the concern, then limiting the police force to uphold and to protect individual rights and only individual rights would solve the monetary problem. Of course, in order to do that, then the laws must be changed and for the laws to be changed significantly we need to advocate capitalism against the nanny state. It's all tied together as the police officer stated, and as we move more towards statism people who want to rule over others will be self-selected for becoming police officers. I think he mentioned 10% or more maybe want to rule over others, which is frightening; none of them should want to rule over anybody -- they can be against individual rights violations and reign in those violating individual rights, but if their motivation is to rule over others, I would think that they are unfit for duty as police officers. The American people are governed, they are not ruled and they ought not to be ruled over by anyone.

[EKUzombiE]

I would think that they are unfit for duty as police officers.

The qualifications for becoming a police officer, be it municipal, county or state, vary state by state.

In Kentucky, you have to have either an associates degree from an accredited university, or four years of honorable military experience. You must also be able to pass a fairly strenuous physical fitness test, polygraph test, extensive background check, as well as a battery of oral interviews and written test. This is just the statewide standards for peace officer certification. Honestly, in order to get hired, you should at least have a Bachelors degree, or military experience as an Officer.

Along with this, every agency has it's own unique testing battery added on to the aforementioned.

Once you pass all this, you're faced with the competition...and there's plenty of that. I once applied for an agency I had worked for previously in a non-sworn capacity...thought I knew everyone well enough to stand a pretty good chance, plus my qualifications and experience were excellent...I found out in order to even qualify for an interview I would have had to have been better than 65 other applicants.

So it's tough to get into the field...but that does not necessarily mean that the testing batteries are looking for the right qualities in a potential employee.

There's a lot of, "I'm kin to ___," that happens in the field during the hiring process. For example, the husband of the niece of the Assistant Chief of the police department gets hired on, despite the fact that the job opening was listed publicly, and most of those that applied for the open position had more impressive qualifications than he. The fact that he might lack the level of professionalism necessary for the job; the professionalism that comes from education, and more importantly from previously working in a professional environment...will be obvious. He'll be the first one to use extreme force in a situation that doesn't call for it, or the one to mess-up and pull a pistol instead of a taser, as the adrenaline and pseudo-panic of the moment has taken hold of his mind.