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United States News Title: TEXAS TOWN FIRES ENTIRE POLICE DEPARTMENT, CRIME DROPS BY 61% 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 $200,000 per year over their previous contract with the constable, and they now have more patrol officers for less money. Of course, a further incentive for employing private police is that there are less bureaucratic black holes to hide within, and there is more accountability. A claim against an officer means a claim against them personally and against the entire company, rather than against faceless government pen pushers. In addition, companies like SEAL operate as businesses, and as such are profit driven to provide the most efficient service. It is highly inefficient to police with brute force and to incur endless lawsuits. Taxpayer dollars would simply not be available to fund them. Thirdly, private security companies are less likely to be handed, and also less willing to receive, hordes of unwanted and outdated military equipment, as so many police departments around the country have in recent times. The report notes that over 70 communities in Harris County now have contracts with SEAL. “They’re less expensive, better at crime prevention, they do not target citizens for revenue, and, best of all, each officer is personally accountable for his or her actions.” the report states. “The rest of the country would do well to closely examine the success of Sharpstown’s implementation of private security.” it concludes. The scale of police brutality and corruption in the US is off the charts. It is impossible to even attempt to keep track of. Perhaps a little healthy competition would make police departments think more about their policing policies, who they employ, and how they train them to do their jobs.
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#25. To: cranko (#0)
This whole article is bull$hit. Sharpstown is not a city but a high-crime neighborhood under the jurisdiction of the Houston Police Department. The community had a yearly contract with the Harris County Constables’ Office for extra security patrols. They found they could save money by switching to a private security firm called S.E.A.L. Solutions. Crime is down 61%? The only crime mentioned was home burglary, and that went down from twenty to eleven. The 61% number originates from an “independent study conducted by the Sharpstown Civic Association, a group with a vested interest in combating its image as a haven for crime. According to a more objective source—Houston’s NBC affiliate—Sharpstown had the most total crimes of any Houston neighborhood in 2013, the first full year of the S.E.A.L. patrols."
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