Privatizing Law Enforcement?

Frank Borelli
Editor In Chief
New American Truth
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Recently my daughter wrote about events near her college when students and other protestors were on hand during the G20 summit. Her first-hand eyewitness accounts of riot control officers deploying tear gas to the outside of residential dorm buildings to keep the students from exiting the building concerned me. Her reports of officers from other states being brought in to fortify the Pittsburg officers wasn’t as much of a concern, but it was some. The idea of a private company being given police authority to enforce the law in a given governmental entity’s geographic area scares the heck out of me.

Now, mind you, I am a retired police officer and I still am a police instructor. I’m about as pro-police as you can get – but I draw the line on authority when it breaches the constitutional protections every citizen carries. The potential challenge I see is keeping privatized police forces operating within the rule of law – because it’s too easy to blur the lines of integrity.

In Hardin, Montana, as reported by this article, the Town Council has contracted American Police Force, a private company, to take over the police department and the jail. Now, the police department isn’t currently staffed. The jail has no prisoners. Therefore there is a limit to how much damage can be done… FOR NOW. That said, the changes that may come are indicated by the black Mercedes SUVs driven into town by private employees but bearing the Town’s Police Logo on the side of each vehicle.

Let’s ponder this for a moment. If private employees of a private company are sworn in as police officers in accordance with a contract for service, then those employees immediately gain all the protections of the Law Enforcement Officers Safety Act, signed into law by President Bush in 2004. That means they can travel (except on planes) nationwide – armed.

Being a strong proponent of the 2nd Amendment I’m all for legally armed citizens. However, “legally armed private police” nationwide kinda bothers me a bit.

The other thing that nags at me is that having a private company running a police force empowers them, as long as the law in the form of lawyers and judges doesn’t get in the way, then the private police department can start populating the private jail. Remembering that we’re talking about a PRIVATE CORPORATION, I’m assuming they exist to make a profit. Law enforcement and prisoner handling for profit are simply unethical. Providing security services is one thing. Having the power of arrest, charging, and then jailing upon conviction for profit is just simply unethical. There is NO way to insure the integrity of such an operation.

So, what do you think? Is Hardin, Montana an example of our shining future? Or is that town an example of what can happen when no one pays enough attention to what their elected officials are doing?

One thing, I DO know: If I was a resident of Hardin, I’d be worried. I’d be VERY worried.

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