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Forget “Good Cops”, Let’s Talk About Good Institutions

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What does a good cop look like? More importantly, what does a good police force look like? And how can society design one?

What elements should be present in a good police force? First, there should be a clear incentive to enforce and obey the laws of justice. Police caught breaking the laws of justice should be held accountable like anyone else. There should be no “sovereign immunity,” the legal doctrine invocated to shield police officers against criminal and civil charges.

How does a good police force know how many cops to hire, where to put them, what they should be dressed like, what weapons they should use, etc.? Like any organization, it will try different policies, and some of these policies will fail. But how is success to be judged?

If a security firm that works for shopping malls makes a rash of poor choices, it will lose business to its competitor. It delivers quality customers service because it can go bankrupt if it doesn’t. The incentives are aligned with honesty, hard work, and peaceful resolutions. Furthermore, the security firm can be sued and does not have the blessing of “sovereign immunity”.

Already, private security is typically preferred to state security by businesses: Brinks is almost always chosen over paid escorts by the local police. Even the Detroit Police Department decided to hire a private security firm to guard its headquarters.

To end bad policing, it is necessary to place police on the same legal playing field as any other group of people. As Bastiat once wrote: “Finally, is not liberty the restricting of the law only to its rational sphere of organizing the right of the individual to lawful self-defense; of punishing injustice?”

The courts may not revoke the doctrine of “sovereign immunity” anytime soon. But that shouldn’t stop us. We can already make personal decisions to hire our own security, volunteer or paid, instead of resorting to the police.

The Peacekeeper App is at the cutting edge of this movement toward accountable and effective security institutions. It is a free app that allows individuals to rely on friends, neighbors, family, and other like-minded individuals during emergencies, in lieu of calling 911. In an emergency, users can use Peacekeeper to instantly alert their network, who can be there in minutes or even faster. A decentralized, voluntary network is being built out of modern-day minute men willing to be the change they wish to see in the world. In addition, the Peacekeeper Guardian Program provides elite training to help Peacekeepers protect their communities and loved ones.

We need not even worry about the immunity of our supposed sovereign overlords, if we have no reason to invite them into our communities. But is decentralized private security in opposition to God, country, apple pie, and the Constitution? Well, the police didn’t event exist in America until the 1830s:

“A new and improved law enforcement system implemented first by England in 1829: a stronger, more centralized, preventive police force, designed to deter crime from happening, rather than to react once it had occurred.

In 1833, Philadelphia organized an independent, 24-hour police force. In 1838, the Boston Police force was established, with a day police and night watch working independently. New York City followed suit in 1844, becoming the New York City Police Department in 1845. Police departments were now headed by police chiefs who were appointed by political leaders.”

The Founding Fathers were very skeptical of any “select militia” or standing army that is armed above, and has more rights than the general militia, which is composed of the whole of the people, armed and going about their daily activities, ready to respond.

In Letters From a Federal Farmer, a main inspiration for the US Bill of Rights, the motivation for the 2ndAmendment is seen:

“But, say gentlemen, the general militia are for the most part employed at home in their private concerns, cannot well be called out, or be depended upon; that we must have a select militia; that is, as I understand it, particular corps or bodies of young men, and of men who have but little to do at home, particularly armed and disciplined in some measure, at the public expence, and always ready to take the field.

These corps, not much unlike regular troops, will ever produce an inattention to the general militia; and the consequence has ever been, and always must be, that the substantial men, having families and property, will generally be without arms, without knowing the use of them, and defenceless; whereas, to preserve liberty, it is essential that the whole body of the people always possess arms, and be taught alike, especially when young, how to use them; nor does it follow from this, that all promiscuously must go into actual service on every occasion.

The mind that aims at a select militia, must be influenced by a truly anti-republican principle; and when we see many men disposed to practice upon it, whenever they can prevail, no wonder true republicans are for carefully guarding against it.”

The 9th Amendment also enshrined the notion that no select militia can have legal rights the general militia i.e. every citizen does not. It proclaimed the legal doctrine of popular sovereignty, where sovereign rights derive from the people. But how can the people, who are not immune from prosecution, grant rights they do not have? The legal doctrine of “sovereign immunity” is completely opposed to the 9thAmendment and popular sovereignty.

What you see on the streets today is not law. It is not constitutional. And it is not delivering very good customer service. Join Peacekeeper in providing new guards for our future security, and throw off the old ones!


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