Privatizing Police Work

[xchrom]

http://www.theatlanticcities.com/neighborhoods/2011/10/privatizing-police-work/329/

Fighting crime is expensive. And if you’re a small town with diminishing resources, the price of public safety can often be a heavy but necessary burden. One small town in Minnesota is attempting to slash its costs by outsourcing their police work to a private security firm.

KARE-TV reports that the town of Foley, about 60 miles outside of Minneapolis, has handed over its police work to General Security Services Corporation, a private security provider that serves private homes, companies, commercial areas and government buildings. Full-time patrols will begin in January.

The town of about 2,600 had previously been relying on sheriff’s deputies from Benton County, who would patrol the city for 17.1 hours a day at a monthly cost of about $23,000 a month. The new deal with General Security Services will cost $98,500 for six months, or about $7,000 less per month than the cost of the sheriff’s deputies.

Private policing is increasingly common in cities across the U.S., though it’s typically only used for a portion of a city’s public safety needs. It’s a trend that’s growing in cities much larger than Foley. Oakland, California, for example, hired a number of private security guards to patrol a crime-ridden part of town in 2009. They got four private guards for less than the price of one police officer.

[Brickbat]

1. A lot of people there are very, VERY unhappy with this. These rent-a-cops won't be doing what

regular patrol cops do:

The security officers do not enforce state laws or intervene in criminal matters, he said. The security officers will not be making arrests and all crimes will be referred to the sheriff’s office, he said.

The security officers will provide routine patrols and do more preventive work, things that law enforcement officers don’t always have time to do anymore, Leoni said.

“They will provide a highly visible presence,” he said.

Benton County Attorney Robert Raupp said the security officers do not have the same authority as police officers. They can make a citizen’s arrest but cannot use their weapons to do so. They cannot conduct traffic stops, search warrants, pursue suspects or investigate crimes.

That's from a local paper; the story is here: http://www.sctimes.com/article/20111022/NEWS01/110220033/Foley-1st-Minn-city-go-24-hour-private-security

The comments are worth reading; that is a pretty red area.

[Scuba]

2. So in other words, they're getting $200K / year to pass along reports of crimes?

[The Velveteen Ocelot]

3. Foley is in Michele Bachmann's district.

[dixiegrrrrl]

4. cheaper money wise, but no accountability. That is so scary.

[xchrom]

5. scares me. nt

[krispos42]

6. Move along, citizen

Nothing to see here.

[Shagbark Hickory]

7. if you think crooked cops are bad wait til u have rent-a-schmucks

i actually lived in a city that essentially had this before it was incorporated. The security guards paid very low hourly wages and had inadequate training. Many were decent people but enough werent. eventually the same city went on to incorporate and ended up with more real cops per capita than any other place on earth.

The biggest pro... no speeding tickets
The biggest cons... unlawful and unwarranted detentions and abuses of power they dont have. I can see why the tbaggers would prefer private security.

[MineralMan]

8. When I heard about that, I immediately though about Mall Cops

patrolling the town, because that's just about what it will be. The thing about sworn police officers is that they are just that, "sworn." Mall cops are not. They do not care about the delicate legal balance that the polices is supposed to protect. I expect that after a few violations of people's rights, the town will revert back to having the Sheriff's department handle law enforcement there.