
An entrepreneur persuaded New Orleans to let him create a high-tech police force - mkx
http://www.nytimes.com/2015/08/02/magazine/who-runs-the-streets-of-new-orleans.html?action=click&contentCollection=magazine&region=rank&module=package&version=highlights&contentPlacement=1&pgtype=sectionfront&_r=0
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roymurdock
"...Torres’s squad, the French Quarter Task Force, which at all hours had
three armed officers zigzagging the neighborhood in matte black Polaris
Rangers that resemble militarized golf carts."

"Torres also became involved in setting policy. Earlier that week, his force
had coordinated with the N.O.P.D. in two huge arrest sweeps of so-called
transients, whose familiar panhandling presence in the neighborhood (ragged
clothes, mangy dogs, rusted harmonicas) had not been the subject of recent
outrage. But Torres believed them to be a nuisance...The targets of the
arrests had not been connected to any serious crimes, and some of the city’s
residents saw the move as questionable."

"'Crazy, right?' Torres later said. 'I kind of felt like Bruce Wayne.'"

So basically this rich businessman has a small force of _armed_ private police
legally roaming his neighborhood because a) he had his home burglarized and
was pissed off b) he wanted to get rid of some homeless people to raise
property values in the rich quarter, where he and his family/friends own a lot
of property c) it makes him feel like Batman.

It's sad that the current state of public policing has not only allowed, but
necessitated this type of questionable vigilante justice.

~~~
tomohawk
This is not vigilante justice. These are off duty police officers working as
an officially sanctioned part of the local government, which is obviously
failing to get the job done.

A vigilante would shoot the malefactors on the spot, but these officers are
arresting the individuals in cooperation with the nopd and their cases are
adjudicated like any others.

I don't see any problem with someone who has skin in the game and who is
passionate getting involved in local governance and trying to find a better
way forward.

The fact that he is rich and politically connected makes him that much more
able to tackle the problem. I suppose the optics would be better if he just
packed up and left town and left New Orleans to stew in its own juice. Then he
couldn't be accused of a rich guy bossing little guys around. However, this
guy has a wealth, talent, and influence, and he's choosing to apply them
responsibly. He should be applauded.

~~~
michaelt

      I don't see any problem with someone who has skin in the 
      game and who is passionate getting involved [...] The
      fact that he is rich and politically connected makes him
      that much more able to tackle the problem.
    

One traditional hazard is when the people with the power to solve problems
solve them for themselves but not for everyone, so they lose their skin in the
game before they finish the job properly.

An example:

* Me and the mayor live on the same street, in the rich area of town, where there are ten potholes that really annoy us both. I'm always bugging him about it.

* There are a thousand potholes over the rest of the city. The mayor can't afford to fix them this year, but he'd like to soon. Maybe with a tax increase, or a cut to the parks budget?

* I form a local pothole-fixing task force. With the mayor's consent, my neighbours and I raise $2000 and hire someone to fix the ten potholes that annoy us.

* The mayor is no longer annoyed by potholes, and I no longer bug him about it. He realises nobody really wants a tax increase, or a cut to the parks budget.

* The remaining 990 potholes don't get fixed. Sucks not to live in the rich part of town!

If Torres was sending his forces across the entire city equally, it would be a
different matter! But fixing 10 potholes is much easier to afford than fixing
1000.

~~~
seren
At least, potholes can't move, but with petty criminals, if some streets are
patrolled more often, they will just move elsewhere.

------
baseballmerpeak
I worked in the Quarter for the better part of two years. The criminals are
criminals; the transients are part of the character of the area. Where else in
the world do you have a mix of movie stars and millionaires living alongside
musicians and artists working hard to survive?

As hard as he tries, the Quarter is still in New Orleans. White washing it may
make it more appealing to moneyed types and tourists, but it comes at the cost
of turning the Quarter into a shell of what it once was.

~~~
bhuga
I still live here, and I'm sick of the "Crime is part of the character"
narrative. The Quarter, Marigny, Bywater, and Treme can have plenty of
character without the risk of getting mugged biking home from work.

~~~
sixothree
Still here as well and I really have some awful sounding opinions on this
subject.

It's hard to ignore that in the deep south white people are afforded enormous
privilege in many ways. And these gutter punks (transients) are overwhelmingly
white, young, able bodied.

I wish they all go home to their white privileged families.

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adaml_623
There are obvious ethical problems with a private security service supplanting
the police.

However this is an interesting example of how it might be advantageous to have
multiple service providers competing in a market that try to be more efficient
and provide more for less money.

Maybe there should always be multiple police forces that compete in the same
market. It might help get rid of violent cops who driving down the services
reviews :-)

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sremani
The raise of "private cops" should not surprise anyone. In US where income
inequality has risen to greater proportions and the city budgets stagnated.
Gated communities, private security and private cops are the next steps of it.
They are not as much accountable to public at large. It is tempting to paint
all the private cops in a bad picture, but there is some good coming out of
it. Where the City Police has become moribund, these guys are the only hope
between getting robbed and not getting robbed.

~~~
s_baby
Rise? The original police forces were created and controlled by company towns.

------
millzlane
OmniCorp - "We've Got the Future Under Control"

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flihp
Anyone else wondering why a city with a crime problem has had their police
force reduced by 500 officers in the last 3 years?

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pakled_engineer
This works as a chase away strategy but East NO is a different matter, nowhere
to chase the gangs to.

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ocdtrekkie
This sounds amazingly close to the start of the CPS in the show Continuum.

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erikb
Oh my god. If the US will start to privatise police then we soon have that all
over the planet.

~~~
chiph
San Francisco has a private police force that predates the public one. And is
less corrupt.

[http://reason.com/archives/2015/07/21/san-franciscos-
private...](http://reason.com/archives/2015/07/21/san-franciscos-private-
police)

~~~
ceejayoz
The San Francisco police have 2,000+ officers. The San Francisco Patrol
Special Police you refer to have 40. I'd both be interested in the metric
you're using to determine "less corrupt" and in how that metric would look if
they had 2,000 officers like the SFPD.

~~~
chiph
The article goes into it from a historical perspective, but one only has to
search "SFPD Corruption" to find many examples. And officers who try to be
ethical get punished by the others.

[http://www.sfweekly.com/sanfrancisco/sfpd-tries-to-fire-
cop-...](http://www.sfweekly.com/sanfrancisco/sfpd-tries-to-fire-cop-for-
balking-at-conducting-illegal-searches/Content?oid=2181868)

~~~
ceejayoz
As I noted, the SFPD is 50+ times the size, and I'm interested in an actual
metric, not anecdotes. I'm pretty suspicious of the contention that a private
police force would be somehow immune to corruption - it certainly hasn't been
the case with groups like Blackwater.

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serve_yay
We are insane.

------
anentropic
USA is a failed state

