"...progressives argue that a single-payer, universal police plan would not only standardize methods and uniforms but also allow the government to use its dominant market power to negotiate for prices with police weapons suppliers. In Canada, which has a completely public police system, guns, tear gas, billy clubs, rubber truncheons and brass knuckles cost only half as much as in the U.S.
Other analysts argue that the fee-for-service payment system associated with America's for-profit police protection industry also contributes to the uniquely high costs of personal security in the United States. Unlike in countries where police officers are on a public payroll and have no incentive to maximize shootings, beatings and arrests, American police mercenaries get reimbursed by tax-favored crime insurance plans every time they chase or apprehend a suspect. Many analysts argue that this perverse incentive structure accounts for what is called "overbeatment" -- the high number of Americans who get the living daylights beaten out of them on the streets by soldiers of fortune.
Many progressives claim that quite apart from arguments over costs there is a moral argument for providing universal police protection. "Police protection should be a right of all citizens, not a commodity that is bought and sold," insists Hugh Topian, of the nonprofit Center for Democracy and Stuff in Washington, D.C. Topian points out that America's system of tax breaks for companies that buy health insurance for their employees is heavily skewed toward the rich and powerful. A corporate executive with a "gold-plated" personal security plan might be given 24-hour police protection by a dozen mercenaries, while workers whose employers do not provide crime insurance are frequently mugged or killed while for-profit police officers are standing nearby.
Despite these arguments, many congressional leaders of police reform insist that the votes are not there for a complete government takeover of America's private warlords and militias. As a compromise, Sen. Bill Melater, D-R.I., and others have introduced a bill that would include a public plan alongside a requirement for all Americans to buy private police protection.
...Senate Minority Leader Jefferson Davis, R-Miss. : "I think we should be very careful before we start down the slippery slope of socialism or fascism or whatnot. If we make police protection a public responsibility, then where will it all end? What next? Public roads? Public schools? Hitler and Stalin had public police -- and we know where that led."
At the same time, not all business executives agree with the American Chamber of Commerce's opposition to a partial or total public takeover of policing. One dissident in the business community is Price Tosell, who runs an auto parts dealership in Cleveland. "I see these crime insurance companies and mercenaries as part of the crime problem, not part of the solution," says Tosell. Last year, after he refused to consent to his crime insurance company's 20 percent increase, Tosell was trapped in his office for three days by ax-wielding Central Asian warriors. In the end, he agreed to pay higher protection costs, but the experience has left him bitter: "These crime insurance companies prey on the small business entrepreneur."
The ultimate shape of the healthcare bill that emerges from negotiations in Congress will depend on a few swing voters like Belle Wether, D-Mo. After expressing her support for a public police option last fall, Sen. Wether changed her mind, reportedly after meeting in her office with a horde of mercenaries in horned helmets who wheeled in several wagons full of plunder. "We don't want to do anything to undermine our vigorous, free-market policeman-for-hire system," she explained the next day. "If rising police protection costs are such a big problem, then the fiscally responsible thing to do is to cut Social Security for the middle class."
full article: http://www.salon.com/opinion/feature/2009/06/30/police/
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