[firestar]

Instead of having a group of full time cops that get bored and start looking for trouble, why don't we have a reserve police force made up of the citizens?

The people would have to take turns serving as cops for a short period and then would be allowed to continue about their normal life, sort of like a jury system. You would be call up and you would do your bit and then you would get the hell out. This might stop burnout and the coruption and gernerally poor attitudes of certain cops. Instead of fearing the cops, we would be the cops.

I think this idea would work for the most part. We would have to have a skeleton police force to for training and certain highly skilled task like crime investigating and others but the day to day tasks would be conducted by the citizen. No more standing army of cops that treat the citizen like people that are beneith contempt.

This should be implemented in the political aspects of our counrty also. There should be no full time polititions!

There is a growing rift between segments of our society and it does not bode well. There is an "us and them" mentality that is degrading the relationship between the citizen and the people in positions of power.

[4v50 Gary]

A city can opt to do that, but like the militia, what do you do when Tommy decides to go fishing instead? What if Tommy habitually brings in a note from their doctor stating that he can't play police today because of an injury? What if Tommy puts in for an ADA accommodation? Does this mean the rest of us have to carry Tommy's weight while he's home drinking and watching TV? What if Tommy is a drunk? If I recall correctly (and correct me if I'm wrong guys), only once did Andy deputize Otis (the town drunk) and I wouldn't want to make it a practice of doing that. It's going to be an unequal distribution of work.

I think the liability for the city is scary and not to be elitist, but some folks shouldn't carry guns. Ever been threatened with force by a neighbor because he didn't like something you did? I'm sure you wouldn't want someone who can fly off the handle to carry a gun and enforce the law.

I'd rather liberalize the CCW for folks with clean records (forget that Lautenberg nonsense. I'm talking about no thefts, drugs, violent crime, felonies in their record). A few deputy sheriffs who can raise a posse. Once the criminals know they can get gunned down for a hold-up, they'll move to another county.

[Cal4D4]

If it's semi mandatory like jury duty, I think the problem will be excuses like 4v50 Gary said. If it is all volunteer I fear motives. People do the reserve cop thing for alot of different reasons. I trust the old capitalist, profit motive most.

[dave]

"Instead of fearing the cops, we would be the cops." by firestar



We are the cops now. Where do you think they come from?

As long as police officers come from society in general (where else could they come from) we will have "bad cops". It will not matter if they are full time or reserve. Sadly, some folks are just bad.

We need to make it easier for the departments to get rid of the bad apples. As long as we continue to make it almost impossible (via unions, NAACP ACLU, laywers and "public pressure") to rid ourselves of the crooks, they will stay on. As long as we continue to paint every officer with the same brush used on the bad ones, no department will feel comfortable making their "cop goes bad" stories public. As long as we feel it's more important how an officer "looks" or about an officers "gender", we will have trouble keeping the "good" ones.

There are some officers that need to be fired, now. They are white, black, men and women. The "bad" cops have learned to play the game. They threaten to sue, and do, when faced with termination or punishment. The above groups insure they keep their jobs. Many are promoted as a reward for not causing trouble or to make the dept "look good" to the public. To many good officers see this and leave the job. They simply will not be involved in the sham.

The system is a gravy train for the bad officers. We just can't get rid of them. The only group that gets smaller every year is the group made up of good and honest cops. Let a department try to fire a cop because he/she just can't cut it, and watch the pickets go up in front of the station. Seems the dept isn't treating them "fair". If you try to fire a bad cop, who just may happen to be black, female, or gay, they ALWAYS say they are being treated "unfairly" because of the group they belong to. Even the whit officers use the unions as their protector.

Sad truth is, you just can't get rid of a bad officer. And the public seems to approve.

[biere]

I won't go for a reserve police force.

There is a reason why rookies are trained with more experienced officers, having rookies coming through every 3 months would cause problems in my opinion.

You can train a militia and arm them with weapons at federal expense prices, that would fix a lot of problems as far as home defense goes. If you worked national ccw and were more open that would also solve problems while out and about.

I compare some antis and ccw folks to gas station.

Some people will sit in their car and pay more money to let someone pump their gas and do the job for the operator of the car. You have the oppurtunity for the person doing the work to mess up, over charge you, make a mess, or simply steal your card numbers if using a credit card.

Others using self serve do it themselves, know it was done right, know they paid the right price, and know the job was done right. If a mistake was made, they know what it is and can take action to prevent damage to the car or whatever.

In the late 80s there were people in some communities who would walk their block in large groups, this scared off drug dealers and other folks because they did not like attention.

The answer is not more full service gas stations, because they are not everywhere when they are needed.

Self serve is handled right now, no waiting. Till some people understand that there will always be victims.

Unfortunately, since so many victims are around to train the criminals, they sometimes also get someone who is not as likely to be a victim.

[Gordon]

I was asked in 1980 to join Sherrif's reserve so I could shoot for them. I did for 6 years before New Sherrif didn't like shooting matches; too expensive. He needed the money for Lulac appeasment programs!:fire:

[Hkmp5sd]

Being an LEO is a full time profession. It is too complicated to be performed by part-timers with other careers and goals. If you want to help out, many agencies have an auxilary where you can get the basic training and then help when and where needed.

[4v50 Gary]

Imagine if your wife got called up? Would you let her patrol a rough neighborhood? This brings to mind the Civil War system of allowing "substitutes" for a draft. If you had the $, you "paid" someone else to show up in your place. Ned Roberts' (author of "The Muzzle Loading Cap-Lock Rifle") Uncle Avery was a substitute for another man in Berdan's Sharpshooters. If that's allowed, then it becomes a "rich man" game of paying some poor slob to walk his beat for him. Returning to the wife on patrol, imagine the worrying about her even coming home? That's what some police wives go through everyday and sometimes hubby doesn't. :(

The idea of citizens policing themselves isn't so bad but we're going to need some major changes. Liability laws since many the training levels will go down. Less rights for criminals and like Nevada, we should be able to shoot burglars.

I'd rather see a more watered down concept where the citizens are responsible for themselves and are assisted by the police in defending themselves. It used to be called personal responsibility. Hey, there's even a couple of movies about it. The Seven Samauri and the American sequel, The Magnificient Seven come to mind.