Tuesday, April 3, 2007

The birth of corrupt cops

Philip Morris has finally started bribing police for their time to handle their crimes (full story).

Is this $50,000 simple civic fundraising, or a return to corruption of law enforcement. Will this lead to a growing mercenary force known as the LAPD? Can I hire the police to patrol my Beverly Hills block or my quiet suburb instead of wasting time in crime infested ghettos?

On the flip side, why can't big companies sponsor police departments and buy them gifts and equipment? The government isn't pitching in as much as they should. As long as it doesn't directly correlate to their assignments, as long as no link can be made between priorities and money, I no change in how effective is law enforcement. And if LAPD does more contract policing, it will help them be accountable. It makes when giggle when I imagine the LAPD doing a cost analysis and calculating overhead into the project.

This latest event with P.M. rubs me a little in the wrong direction.

1 comment:

Shauner said...

I just learned of precedent for this type of activity with such examples as film and music companies funding police to fight pirated copies, the AAA funding auto theft investigations, realtors funding for real estate fraud, ... (more examples at http://www.thetruecosts.org/NR/rdonlyres/ezr3ewebab3hg5xzs2gxdkm56zty6u3zvs72cotlrpqbz3dhgirmfw7ib2en36annuss7bxcutembhf4r7ezlzu4m6g/April35.pdf).