Quote Originally Posted by Fragony View Post
Why not? More interesting a question to start with imho, why such trust into a single entity. Nobody asks why in the shopping mall, having a set of eyes and ears isn't all that hard, outsourcing makes total sense. Cheaper, less prone to corruption, and an incentive to do a good job because you can always do business with someone else. Quik easy and painless.
Currently shopping mall security staff here in the UK are largly powerless, so there is no point corrupting them. I fail to see how local law enforcement of the type you suggest could be anything other than corrupt. Local councils are bad enough. I also fail to see how subject policing to market forces is going to automatically be A Good Thing (tm).