I support laws that uphold the Non Aggression Principle, defending life and property, rather than exercising power and generating revenue for the state. Unfortunately, today, police are called upon to enforce laws enacted by the General Assembly, and their municipality that infringe upon individual liberty, while doing nothing to make others safe, such as the War on Drugs, (actually a war on people). Police were first introduced to assist the ordinary citizens in arresting violent criminals, and bringing them to justice. Now, we have the ordinary citizen afraid of what appears to be a standing army patrolling their streets, looking for ways to generate revenue with seemingly endless laws to enforce.
I support the idea of restoring the authority of sheriffs and constables. Instead of an “us versus them” mentality that many police officers have today, sheriffs and constables are elected by the people, not appointed, and both could and did call up posses of the people when necessary, as the Clearfield County Sheriff’s Office has done. View the Clearfield County Sheriff’s Posse Facebook page!
I strongly oppose police militarization such as we see so often today, and oppose the Pennsylvania State Police and municipal police agencies from becoming standing armies right in our neighborhoods. One evidence of this is the expansion of the term “civilian” to refer to persons not police officers, when historically a civilian was anyone that was not a part of the military. See this relevant article from The Rutherford Institute
Short of a privatization of security, such as covered by Vice News here, I would require that police officers purchase and maintain liability insurance, (just like doctors, construction contractors, etc. do), and that the insurance companies that serve them and the municipalities that hire them would maintain a searchable database with each officer’s full name, badge number, and a list of every complaint made against them, with its corresponding final disposition.