TEXAS TOWN FIRES ENTIRE POLICE DEPARTMENT, CRIME DROPS BY 61%
Replaced all cops with private security
A Texas town has proven that there is a solution to out of control cops after it replaced the entire police department with private security officers and saw a remarkable drop in crime by 61%.
Sharpstown, located southwest of Houston, decided in 2012 that regular public policing was proving wholly ineffective, and opted not to renew a contract with the constable’s office.
Instead the town’s civic leaders hired private security agents with the company SEAL Security Solutions, and devised a more effective policing strategy.
“Since we’ve been in there, an independent crime study that they’ve had done [indicates] we’ve reduced the crime by 61%” in just 20 months, James Alexander, Director of Operations for SEAL told reporters with guns.com.
That is an estimated slashing of criminal activity of almost two thirds in just over a year and a half.
Alexander believes that the reason for such a dramatic drop has come with more sensible policing in areas that need it the most.
“We do directed patrols, meaning we don’t just put an officer out there and say ‘here, go patrol.’ We look at recent crime stats, and we work off of those crime stats.” he states.
“So if we have hotspots in those areas say for that month, we focus and concentrate our efforts around those hotspots.”
He also believes that officers should spend less time filling in paperwork and more time engaging effectively for a safer community.
“On a constable patrol contract, it’s either a 70/30 or an 80/20. Meaning they say they patrol your community 70 percent of the time, [while] 30 percent of the time they use for running calls out of your area or writing reports.”
According to the report, Sharpstown is saving $200,000 per year over their previous contract with the constable, and they now have more patrol officers for less money.
Of course, a further incentive for employing private police is that there are less bureaucratic black holes to hide within, and there is more accountability. A claim against an officer means a claim against them personally and against the entire company, rather than against faceless government pen pushers.
In addition, companies like SEAL operate as businesses, and as such are profit driven to provide the most efficient service. It is highly inefficient to police with brute force and to incur endless lawsuits. Taxpayer dollars would simply not be available to fund them.
Thirdly, private security companies are less likely to be handed, and also less willing to receive, hordes of unwanted and outdated military equipment, as so many police departments around the country have in recent times.
The report notes that over 70 communities in Harris County now have contracts with SEAL. “They’re less expensive, better at crime prevention, they do not target citizens for revenue, and, best of all, each officer is personally accountable for his or her actions.” the report states.
“The rest of the country would do well to closely examine the success of Sharpstown’s implementation of private security.” it concludes.
The scale of police brutality and corruption in the US is off the charts. It is impossible to even attempt to keep track of. Perhaps a little healthy competition would make police departments think more about their policing policies, who they employ, and how they train them to do their jobs.
Replies
Hello, perhaps it might be good to read the following and nuance a little bit the reality?
http://www.texasmonthly.com/daily-post/no-sharpstown-texas-did-not-...
That doesn't cancel the fact that it is a great ide by the way.
Here's a video that reviews what was done, with reduction in burglaries (which was the main problem) taking place and avoiding the unpopular "revenue collection" tactics (i.e. speed traps). Click https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=z9TMI_oUfqY&feature=player_embe... for 2-minute video
Private Security Makes Neighborhood Safer and Reduces Crime
A Houston neighborhood decided to not renew a contract with a constable, and instead got better service for less money from a private security company.
I’ve written in the past about private companies and individuals supplying security for communitie.... We’ve seen this in Oakland, California, Detroit, Clackamas County, Oregon, and even in Mexico with armed residents fending off drug cartels when the po....
This story at Rare.Us shows us something similar in the Houston area: “Texas town sees crime drop by almost two thirds after firing police, hiring private security.”
However, from what is said in the comments, I think Sharpstown, rather than being a city near Houston is actually a neighborhood within Houston. So the Houston PD would still have jurisdiction, I think. And no one was literally fired.
Just as any other kind of socialism would produce shortages, residents of Sharpstown have always felt they needed more than what the Houston PD offered. They were not supplied with the security they wanted. So, for a time they had a contract with the area’s constable’s office. But then they declined to renew that contract and instead contracted a completely private firm, SEAL Security Solutions LLC.
The point here is that a community was able to hire much better protection at a much cheaper price by getting their security from the private sector. According to an interview at guns.com,
“Since we’ve been in there, an independent crime study that they’ve had done [indicates] we’ve reduced the crime by 61%” in just 20 months, says James Alexander, Director of Operations for SEAL. You read that right: Crime dropped 61% in Sharpstown in just over a year and a half.
The reason for their striking success is two-fold, Alexander states. He cites the continuous patrol of SEAL’s officers in their assigned neighborhoods as opposed to the strategy of intermittent presence that the constable embraced. “On a constable patrol contract, it’s either a 70/30 or an 80/20. Meaning they say they patrol your community 70 percent of the time, [while] 30 percent of the time they use for running calls out of your area or writing reports.”
He continues, “The second thing that drastically reduces the crime is that we do directed patrols, meaning we don’t just put an officer out there and say ‘here, go patrol.’ We look at recent crime stats, and we work off of those crime stats. So if we have hotspots in those areas say for that month, we focus and concentrate our efforts around those hotspots.”
When asked to compare traditional law enforcement to the SEAL model, Alexander explains, “Law enforcement officers are trained to be reactive. They’re out there to run calls, they’re running one call to another, so they’re reacting to something that’s already happened. Private security, the way that we train our guys, is more proactive, meaning that we’re in the community proactively patrolling to prevent those crimes.”
Not only is SEAL more successful at crime prevention than traditional law enforcement, they’re cheaper. Sharpstown is saving $200,000 per year over their previous contract with the constable, and they get more patrol officers for less money.
Of course, these patrols aren’t treated like a special class. They are only armed on the basis of the same Second Amendment that protects the right of all citizens to be armed
eVOLVED: YOU ARE PLAYING GAMES WITH "the art of words." If crime was a problem in Sharpstown, Texas after such a removal of local law enforcement bureaucracy (who loved financial perks from the Federal government), the mainstream media would be reporting this crime-increase big-time, and reporting such in a way bigger than that of a police officer shooting a an unarmed black man in Missouri.
asome! so they carry weapons and make arrests-deputized?