Police abuses

[Major Robert Dump]

Go the free market way and have healthy competition, with transparency and accountability and bonuses. Not saying that their should be private police forces, but maybe a decentralisation for some and some sort of competitive vibe (best county gets a performance based pay bonus) etc. Mind you moment you go down KPI incentives the system gets worked. So need to make a system that brings out the best in people not awards a dodgy version of brotherhood.

Heck I would love to see the top ten police get million dollar bonuses as long as all the corrupt ones were handled.

Honestly I don't know how a "top cop" system would work without it being based on quotas and inherently causing cops to trump up charges and try to get even more arrests for things which don't need to end in arrests.

Many cities and counties have a traffic citation quota system than is enacted either constantly or when the local budget needs more money. Most of the cops I know hate the quotas, and it enrages the public. Personally, I don't have a problem with it as it keeps the roads a little safer, but when the city does enact a quota for budget reasons the police department warns the local papers, who in turn warn the people, and towards the end of the month when the quota deadline hits people darn well better mind themselves on the road. So one could argue that that does, or does not work.

Convictions in general, however, from the perspective of drug task forces seeking budgets or district attorneys seeking re-election, is something that is paramount in touting for justifying ones own existence. Theres no shortage of examples of American DAs and sheriffs going to ridiculous extremes to prove their worth come election time, whether it be the Duke Lacrosse team, Phelps smoking pot, busting poker games etc. They need convictions to prove their worth.

What's even more scary is the manner by which the Oklahoma Drug Tasks Forces report their records to the state legislature to pander for funds. First, until 2 years ago, they never distinguished between felony arrests/convictions and misdemeanor arrests/convictions until our US Senator Tom Coburn called them on it. Turns out the Forces were netting far more misdemeanor and insignificant arrests than felonies.

Second, the reporting still does not distinguish between number or people arrested/convicted vs the number of individual charges. I'll give you an example:

Man has marijuana in his house. For whatever reason, he gets raided. Police find marijuana. One would think possession charge, right? In addition to possession, he can also be charged with: 1-a felony if he has a legal firearm in the closet, possession of firearm while in commission of a crime; 2-a misdemeanor of possession of marijuana without a tax stamp, although that one is a catch-22 and you can't legally apply for a tax stamp for illegal marijuana; 3-a felony of possession of marijuana while within 1000 feet of a school, church or park, a charge you will get no matter where you are in town because it has been zoned to include crosswalks, bus stops, church auxillary building that aren't even labeled, and public land thats not really a park but people use for jogging, ball, etc; 4-a misdemeanor of possession of marijuana with intent to distribute, if you have more than an ounce (despite being like everything else, the more you buy the cheaper it is) or if you have sandwich bags in your house anywhere, can be bumped up to a felony if within 1000 feet of a school, church or park, see number 4; 5-a misdemeanor of possession with a child present, if there is a child present anywhere on the property, to include the children of other tenants in the apartment/duplex/condo complex. And my personal favorite, 6, a misdemeanor maintaining a dwelling where drugs are kept or sold, which in basic english means you own a house and have drugs, and is nothing more than a pre-requisite charge to justify the cops to confiscate everything you own so they can pad their budget (5-10% of Cleveland County Sheriffs budget comes from seized personal property sales) on the grounds that your entire estate was purchased with drug money. Also, if you have more than 200 dollars in cash on one individual in the house and got the distribution charge, you can be charged with 7 a misdemeanor of possession of drug proceeds.

So we have 1 guy, in a condo he owns, in possession, committing one crime really, but he is charged with a possible 8, redundantly stacking 7 on top of the possession charge. Drug task force reports to legislature this as 8 charges brought, 8 convictions gained, but does not mention that they all came from the same unlucky individual. Oh, and his life is ruined, as is the life of his family, he is now a felon and a convict, will go to prison and be raped, will come out of prison and be unable to find work and will become one of those people like the ones at the Oakland rally. Now that's progress.

That is where top cop competitions get us. They don't want to win the drug war, because then they won't have jobs and there will be no one to fill the prisons with.

Now, if we had a competition where the cop who shot the least unarmed people got a prize, I would go all in.