What would be different if there was no police

[Fragony]

The poor are screwed anyway, police doesn't go to these area's. That is where they have to admit that they are of no use and should allow civilian guards, payed or not it doesn't really matter, the rich can afford better security anyway, and will.

[Husar]

So you're really in favour of having a Warlord in every part of the city with the different warlords fighting wars between one another? Some rich guy will buy himself enough mercenaries to try and control as large an area as possible, the mafia can just operate more openly and the citizens will have to dodge bullets and shoot back to prevent it. Of course you can solve this by fighting back with a militia but you can also die in said militia if the others are too strong, the police force are many, they have a monopole on power, they can draw forces from other cities if necessary etc. which is why it makes little sense to fight them openly, a local militia is a lot weaker than that.
That the police are not patrolling certain areas is a problem that isn't inherent to the concept of a police force, it's about how our police force is used, handled, trained, equipped and financed. In countries were there is no effective police force that establishes control of an area to keep the peace, it's usually the poor who are at the whim of marauding bandits, warlords and what not, now you can say that all our middle class citizens can afford a gun, but then when I murder someone two blocks away at night, who is going to find out it was me? There is noone to stop me from murdering again, noone who knows how to find me, there will just be a lynch mob that chooses the most unwanted person in the area, perhaps a stranger, and blames, then kills him.

[Fragony]

Yeah I prefer paying the maffia over having to pay police and the maffia, is that so odd. Every policeman costs you twice, got to pay his salary and the job he's doing, said job being writing fines. You are on your own anyway, police or no police.

[Lord of Lent]

There's no point in living like that. People simply have to come to an agreement if they want to live in peace. And the poor people are already forming mobs so I think privatising security isn't a bad idea.

[Fragony]

Absolutily awesome for the poor, the poorer the easier after all, actually collecting is a different agency, here at least. Police is just too useless to be of any use, too dumb and lazy. Guns please.

[naut]

Why not?

[bobbin]

Why do people think private security would fill the void? With no one watching over them they could do what ever the hell they liked and so would very quickly become protection rackets, also being private organisations they would undoubtably focus on the most profitable forms of policing ie: fines, lots of them.

So you would be paying extortionate sums for protection and they would only really focus getting more money from you through fines, it would be far far worse than the current situation.

[Crazed Rabbit]

Why do people think private security would fill the void? With no one watching over them they could do what ever the hell they liked and so would very quickly become protection rackets, also being private organisations they would undoubtably focus on the most profitable forms of policing ie: fines, lots of them.

So you would be paying extortionate sums for protection and they would only really focus getting more money from you through fines, it would be far far worse than the current situation.

Perhaps you ought to take a look at the police abuses thread. In the US, the police largely monitor and investigate themselves, so they can do a sham investigation of an officer killing someone for a door ringing prank and say nothing's wrong.

And police are already focused on fines; whether it be speed traps or asset seizure, which involves taking any money they find on a person without charging them with a crime. To stop that, we need to remove the incentive, which means police departments shouldn't get any of the money or items they seize or any of the fines they charge.

The answer, whether private or public security, is proper oversight and accountability. We don't have that in the US for the police, though I think it would be easier to get oversight on private companies than on the government police.

CR