Police

• Outsourcing self-defence
  • Because we have a right to defend ourselves and arrest criminals, we can also delegate those rights to others and employ them for that purpose. We generally call people employed for these purposes ‘police officers’.
  • The police function is a service like any other - today there is a government monopoly on police services, but it doesn’t need to be this way. Competition would improve policing for employees and customers alike as different protection-services firms compete to win business by offering the best quality product at the most attractive prices.
• Who hires the police?
  • Anyone can hire police or security professionals. Half the planet’s population lives in a country where privately employed security workers outnumber government-employed ones.
  • If the government was funded voluntarily, instead of via taxes, the government hiring police officers does not violate any aspect of the Legal Principle.
• Competition improves the quality of policing
  • Because private corporations will seek to have their contracts renewed, they will strive to satisfy their customers. Other private companies will compete to obtain the contract if they do not.
  • Instead of attempting to reform local police agencies that are not meeting the demands of the people in the local community, imagine a world where any local community could instead contract with a different private police department that operates more consistently with what the community desires.
• Local community decides
  • Whether a local community opts to form its police department and employ people to act as police officers or to contract with a private corporation to provide policing services ought to be the sole decision of the people who live in that local community.
  • People can organize their lives and their police protection services in any way they choose so long as they do not violate the 3L Principle.