I've been watching this thread with interest as I've had strong feelings on this issue for a long time. I would just like to point out that policing in the US is very different to what we have in the UK. The UK has a national police force split up into various regional areas under a local Chief Constable. Everyone from the top down is a police officer. They originally came up through the ranks which meant that those in control were experienced police officers. As I understand, it this is no longer the case which I believe is the root cause of the problems we are now faced with. The police service is now being run by people at the very top who have no practical experience of police work at ground level.
I believe that in the US, local police chiefs are political appointments & they can be voted in or out of office. They also appoint their own subordinates & officials so I imagine a change of police chief could have quite dramatic effects. This is the main difference & obviously makes the whole system completely different. It's interesting to note that US policing methods are being introduced here. I was never convinced that they are appropriate in the UK. If they don't work in the US I don't see the point of copying them.
It was reported recently that a group of local residents in Brighton, which is a few miles east of here, wish to have the street where they live fenced off & employ private security guards to protect them. This obviously means that the local police have lost control & these residents have lost confidence in their ability to protect both them & their property, which I think should never be allowed to happen. If this is allowed to continue we will have vigilantes patrolling our streets before we know it.
I last visited the US in 1996 & travelled from one end to the other up the Eastern seaboard. I recently posted our adventures in the Photos forum. I was most impressed with what we saw & most of all with Manhattan. I commented at the time that I felt safer walking the streets of this city after midnight than I do in my home town. This was due mainly to the strong police presence. There was a cop on foot on every street corner. You would have a job to find one police officer on duty in my home town after dark, let alone after midnight. I suggest that this is one of the main reasons for the continuing failure of our once great national police force.
PS. This is my local police website. It shows the structure of a typical UK police force.. http://www.sussex.police.uk/about_us/index.asp
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