PRIVATIZING THE POLICE, DRIVING PHILOSOPHY OF LAW ENFORCEMENT, AND SUCKING CHEST WOUNDS - 079

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transcript:

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​This week, on the Writer's Detective Bureau: privatizing the police, the driving philosophy of law enforcement and sucking chest wounds. I'm Adam Richardson and this is the Writer's Detective Bureau.

Welcome to episode number 79 of the Writer's Detective Bureau, the podcast dedicated to helping authors and screenwriters write professional quality crime related fiction. This week, I'm answering your questions about the perils of privatizing police work, the driving philosophy of law enforcement, and how you can differentiate your characters by how they view their jobs and what happens when a screwdriver is used as a weapon to the chest. But first, I need to thank Gold Shield patrons, Debra Dunbar from debradunbar.com, C.C. Jameson of ccjameson.com, Larry Keeton, Vicky Tharp of vickitharp.com, Chrysann, Larry Darter, Natalie Barelli of nataliebarelli.com, and Craig Kingsman of craigkingsman.com for their support. I also want to send a huge thank you to my Silver Cufflink and Coffee Club patrons for supporting this episode. You can find links to all of the writers supporting this episode in the show notes at writersdetective.com/79. To learn about setting up your own Patreon account for your author business or to support the show for as little as $2 per month. Visit writersdetective.com/patreon.

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​Jason is back again this week and he writes in asking about the theme of soft localized collapse in law enforcement options. So Jason says, "I'd like to hear about what infrastructure and say, creative legislation may currently exist that allows for privatization of law enforcement. In the absence of such infrastructure, would you mind taking a kick at explaining what that might look like, what national or statewide events might cause it, and maybe best and worst case scenarios as to how traditional law enforcement personnel like yourself might view such things? Sheepdog instincts go haywire? Some of you guys put on masks Batman style where jurisdictions overlap? Feel free to go crazy with the speculation. Let's date ourselves again. Remember "Kuffs?" Christian Slater, I'm going to use a condition like the Police Special idea and run with it. I'd like to make it sound like law enforcement evolution gone awry, but eerie and believable."

Well, just to start as for law enforcement dawning masks like in the, "Watchmen," I don't see that happening when it comes to uniformed patrol. The whole reason we have badge numbers and name tags is because the public believes in accountability from its police. But that said, I have donned to balaclava quite often when I was serving search warrants while working in covert operations. So while there is a balance of overt versus covert, when it comes to operating the field, at least at the investigative level, not the patrol level, we don't get to hide our names in police reports or our faces when taking the stand in court. But yeah, good old Christian Slater as fourth wall breaking, San Francisco Patrol Special Officer Kuffs, circa 1992. I went back and watched a few YouTube clips of Kuffs and I'd actually seen that movie a few times when it first came out. I'd totally forgotten that the actor Troy Evans played police Captain Morino. Now, you might recognize Troy Evans as Detective Johnson, AKA Barrel, half of Crate and Barrel, that detective duo on Amazon's TV show, "Bosch." He's such a great actor.

Yeah, Patrol Specials still exist in San Francisco to this day, but City Hall and modern policing are slowly phasing out that police force. That, as far as I'm aware, is one of a kind. The San Francisco Patrol Special Police force has been around since 1847, which would've been smack in the middle of the San Francisco area's Gold Rush, and it was formed as a type of community policing force that was paid for by the local businesses and other private clients within a Patrol Special's beat. Now, that beat itself was actually a proprietary geographic area that the Patrol Special owns and can ultimately, sell when it comes time to retire to another Patrol Special. Back then, it was a novel way to subsidize extra policing in a big and growing city. But now with policing, in California especially, under continual mandates, requirements, and scrutiny as to their powers and expectations and authority, I fear that the Patrol Specials are losing a battle of attrition.

Although they still wear a police uniform, carry a gun, and a San Francisco PD radio, they no longer have peace officer powers of arrest, which means the ability to arrest based upon probable cause. Rather, their arrests are made under the citizens arrest section of the law, meaning their arrests are ones made solely when they observe a crime being committed... ​                                                                      Continue reading...