A timely effort to restore respect for law enforcement

In light of the heightened friction between police and the public in 2020, the Thick Red Line project is a timely effort to restore respect for law enforcement, mend police-public relations, and keep the police and the public safe by abolishing victimless crimes. We believe we have a solution that safeguards both the police and the public, and dramatically reduces the amount of violence in society, costs to the taxpayer, and the prison population, while also freeing up the police to focus their efforts on stopping real crime.

Victimless crimes are not really crimes… and make the cops the criminals.

A real crime, by definition, has a perpetrator and a victim. Murder, assault, rape, theft, and extortion are all obvious crimes because there is a victim. However, the “government” frequently institutes illogical, immoral, and counter-productive “laws” that penalize peaceful, non-violent people for “crimes” that have no victim. Drug possession, gambling, driving without a seat belt, or ignoring COVID-19 lock down and social distancing orders are examples of victimless crimes. In these cases, politicians attempt to use the police – immorally and even preemptively – to raise revenue from or enforce tyrannical orders upon overwhelmingly peaceful people through the use of force.

When the police use force and coercion against peaceful people for victimless “crimes,” it makes the cops the criminals – individuals engaged in kidnapping and extortion, under the color of law, thus enraging local populations.

The solution: The Thick Red Line Pledge

To restore trust and faith in the police, we are suggesting that individual sheriffs, chiefs, deputies, police officers, and elected officials organize their colleagues into a department- or union-wide refusal to enforce any law or regulation that doesn’t have a real victim. This would dramatically reduce the use of police force against the public, reduce the influence of organized crime (including drug, gambling, and prostitution markets), and dramatically reduce the number of people incarcerated for victimless crimes and forced to work as slave labor in for-profit prisons.

How to Thick Red Line your police department

• Sheriffs: Issue a blanket declaration that your department will no longer prosecute victimless crimes.
• Police chiefs: Organize your command staff and officers to stand united against the demands of elected officials and city managers if they press you to police victimless crimes.
• Command staff, deputies, and police officers: Work with your sheriff or chief and ask them to do their part, if possible. If they are unwilling, organize with your colleagues and issue a blanket refusal of your own.
• Elected officials: Issue a proclamation instructing your local department to stop policing victimless crimes.
• Others: Contact Thick Red Line for help with building community support.

The Government Cannot be a Victim

• Real crimes have victims. No victim; no crime.
• The Golden Rule: Treat others as you wish to be treated.
• Be responsible for one’s own behaviors.
• Peace officers shouldn’t use violence or extortion to enforce “laws” that violate anyone’s person or property, unless a real crime – with a real victim – has been committed.
• A government has no rights. Only an individual has rights.
• An individual cannot violate a non-person’s rights.
• Democracy can never overrule the fundamental rights of the individual (e.g., Natural Law or the Bill of Rights).
• No executive or administrative “order” may ever violate the unalienable rights of the people.

The “government”, which is but an idea/concept that no one can touch, has become an accuser that no one can face.

Officers delegated power by the people – not the politicians or “government” – cannot in good moral conscience allow themselves to be a tool of evil. To do so is a fundamental violation of all human dignity. It dishonors all those who came before us who have fought this form of tyranny throughout history.

There are many who make the case that “government” was never intended to protect life, liberty, and property as claimed, but has always instead been used to rob and control populations. It is universally acknowledged among free people that a government’s legitimate purpose is to protect life, liberty, and property. It is crucial that we immediately return to that minimum responsibility of the state.

“Government” is an intangible. It exists only as an idea, a concept seeded in the mind of the people – often through mandatory “government” schools. It is an accuser that no one can face that acts out its own authority, in courts of its own making. Therefore, government cannot logically or ethically be a “victim”. Furthermore, politicians and administrators cannot morally order the immoral use of police force against citizens in cases of victimless crimes. They may not, by any good measure of humanity, use government force to raise revenue through extortion of the people for victimless crimes.

Crimes can only truly be committed upon persons. These guiding principles are the foundation of all successful societies throughout history. They are the principles referenced as the foundation of the Bill of Rights. Everyone’s rights are inherent and unalienable — rights that came to them with life. These natural rights existed in successful societies long before politicians and “governments” came to be. You, your friends, neighbors, relatives, and all people share them equally, none above the other.

All cultures that have succeeded from antiquity have done so by honoring these truths. As these truths are lost and ignored, so too have the offending societies declined and failed. This trend is without exception and should be a very sobering thought to us today as “governments” seek to curtail the very essence of what humankind has held dear for centuries.

The defense of liberty among one’s neighbors is the ultimate example of self-defense

Indeed, no good can come from taking away the essential liberties of free speech and assembly, no matter the risks we share. To paraphrase Benjamin Franklin: those who would trade essential liberty for security will find in the end that they have neither.

No Natural Right can be taken from another without a victim to stand as accuser in the exercise of due process among the people. No “government” can stand in as a “victim” in this process.

You, as an honorable peace officer, stand at the intersection of the powerful who would victimize the weak on many levels — from the simple thug in the street to the devious and tyrannical in high office who would use you to tread upon the people. A just people have empowered you to defend those who cannot fully defend themselves.

Today, that power still flows through the dangerous tool of “government” administration, of which we must be ever watchful and suspicious at its every reach into the private life of the individual. The individual is the smallest minority: the minority of one. As such, the individual is the most at risk — the most easily violated by government, the least likely to find redress. When the individual is protected in all rights, the whole of society is so protected. For perfect freedom for all, protecting the rights of the individual must always be our collective aim.

The relationship of those who empower you to protect them (the people), and those who direct your day to day work and priorities (the politicians and administrators) is a relationship subject to constant political influence, manipulation, and even outright corruption.

The insertion of political whims by policy and lawmakers that are counter to fundamental rights are a constant risk. These immoral and illegal orders seem designed to come between you and the people you serve, all done in the name of “democracy,” which is mob rule dressed up for dinner. Government orders that negate fundamental rights are unlawful and should be treated as such. At the scene of any real crime there are only people. Government should not be a participant on any side. Politicians’ and bureaucrats’ encroachment on these simple truths should be treated no differently than if they took out a loaded gun and directed its aim at both the police and the people. Action should be decisive and clear. Non-compliance and active resistance!

What is the Thick Red Line, and where will you draw yours?

As politicians push peace officers into enforcing more and more tyrannical policies — from shutting down businesses and enforcing house arrest under medical martial law, to red flag laws and more — every honest, moral officer will need to draw a Thick Red Line in the sand over which they will not cross.

For many officers, their “red line” prevents them from confiscating firearms or enforcing mandatory vaccines. This is an important policy for you to consider, yourself, but will it take these extremes for you to reject tyranny long in the making?

Make no mistake, the Thick Red Line is as important in refusing to enforce seatbelt laws as it is to the coming calls for mandatory vaccinations, or the now openly discussed cancellation of the Second Amendment, as they stem from the very same ideology, and now, “legal” precedent.

The ideology at hand is that government rules you; you do not rule it. The precedent in our law is that peace officers have allowed themselves and their neighbors (the people) to live in this tyranny by failing to stand on the Thick Red Line in their defense. This is not how we “serve and protect” the public in need.

It was a short path from seatbelts to lockdowns. What will we let the future look like? When those in “government” codify laws like the seatbelt laws without resistance, they are emboldened to plan and control more of our actions. Current executive actions to instate medical martial law can quickly lead to policies which will strip away rights to freedom of speech and assembly.

I hear you now saying, “This can never happen.” If you truly look, it already has. Once the principle of individual sovereignty and liberty is pierced, the dam that holds back the tyranny of Franklin’s warning is only about time and pressure. Pressure and time are the tools of the tyranny we face in “our” government and its masters today, while the corporate media serves as the big poster hiding their work and steering our focus away from their crimes and misdeeds.

Without a cure to that puncture, our dam against tyranny is destined to fail in a flood of despotism. We are the ones who must patch the dam — or risk losing again in our society the great work, hopes, and sacrifices of past generations. Generations back to antiquity who have helped carve out this space for freedom.

Responsibility for our actions will come to us. You can be assured of that. What is it going to be? We must claw back from “government” ALL the Rights it now claims to usurp to lord over us. This is not a question or a “democratic” process. It is within our hearts and minds to do this now as individuals today, at this moment. We only need reclaim it — and it is ours immediately.

No Victim, No Crime!

“Government” can have zero rights as a non-person. Righteous ideas all share one thing in common: respecting the natural rights of the individual. Today we are in a war of ideas, and choosing sides is easy. No sophisticated “government” language can hide the fundamental core trait of any proposed law. Even the youngest children on a playground understand this concept instinctively.

• A law either infringes on the non-aggressive person’s actions or, it does not.
• It either coerces an individual to act against his will or, it does not.
• It has a person as a victim or, it does not.

All “legal” contrivances contrary to these rules are but elaborate deceptions, and morally bankrupt. We must hold up the standard our forbearers provided in the principles of individual freedom as the key to life, liberty, and the pursuit of happiness — all free from coercion of any kind.

Justice and Freedom for the ONE is the essence of Freedom and Justice for All — ourselves and our loved ones included. Embracing the Thick Red Line shows you care about dramatically reducing the amount of violence in society, and improving the individual and community relationships of us all.

Politicians would have us believe it is moral to use violence, and the threat of violence and state sponsored theft, to achieve compliance. If you have read this far, you now know that is a lie.

Today, politicians and bureaucrats will many times use fickle and contradictory governmental demands, edicts and “laws” to achieve goals we may not have enough information to understand. These politicians are but people who share our common human flaws. Many believe that the democratic process can override fundamental rights, as if the mob’s desire to lynch is justified by their superior number.

These same politicians and bureaucrats expect you to stand between them and the people you serve while demanding enforcement of “laws” that are unethical or immoral and cause needless division. Even worse, many politicians have conflicts of interest where these victimless crimes can be used to suppress minorities, raise revenue on the population, and even pack for-profit prisons with largely non-violent, completely victimless “criminals” that are then used as essentially slave labor for politically connected companies.

Thick Red Line is your lifeline to the People while on the job

People who are your family, friends and neighbors — others who recognize the Thick Red Line that binds us together — can come to your aid and defense. Call out and extinguish the corruption in government.

• No government has rights.
• No group has rights.
• No one has “special” rights.
• No one should suffer secret courts or “special” punishments at the hand of “government”.

Government is a system brought on by humans whose only application is force and redistribution over other humans. It creates nothing by itself. With that awesome power must come equal respect for government’s destructive potential and the fragility of individual rights for each of us — on and off the job.

The individual is truly the smallest minority and under the greatest threat at all times. Rights do not come to groups granted by government. They are inherent in the individual by nature. They are, as recognized and referenced directly in the Declaration of Independence, unalienable.

When interacting as an officer you are standing on the Thick Red Line. You are the only one who can decide when to use your delegated mandate to protect with force, or violence. That judgment is yours alone, and you alone are responsible for your actions. At times those decisions must be made without all information or time to assess properly the information you have. The Thick Red Line should be your guide — not some “government” rules of engagement more properly designed for war and oppression. Equally, qualified immunity is a lie perpetrated to oppress the People and a fake shield to the immoral in uniform who would claim it.

Bravery is measured by personal risk and moral fortitude — not by the uniform or the shine on a badge. Remembering from where your authority comes must be your first thought and instinct. Your first decision, whether leading an engagement or choosing to follow other officers, will chart the course of escalation or de-escalation of any situation. This will affect lives. Some forever.

Your government training has not alone prepared you for this. In fact, it has prepared you to act as an enforcer of politicians’ will, not a protector of the People’s rights. Some among us must relearn. This is the moment for true bravery in each officer’s life and in each of your interactions, no matter how extreme or mundane the engagement. The responsibility should be humbling to all who choose to serve. It is here in these moments where respect and honor is earned and character revealed.

The Thick Red Line empowers you to say: NO!

No, to those that would ask you to violate the moral truths of human history. Beware: government does not want you to serve the People. Government wants you to serve it.

Only the bravest can resist the power of training, indoctrination, and manipulation through nefarious incentives and promises — even using fear of the People by calling them “civilians”, “subjects”, “targets” and other dehumanizing terms.

In serving special interests who may prop them up, politicians eternally try to obscure the fundamental relationship of the police officer to the individual he protects and serves. Through training and carrot-and-stick incentives, union manipulation and collusion, even militarization and federalization disguised as assistance or “partnerships,” police forces have been steered by dark interests to drive wedges between us as individuals on every conceivable dividing line including race and gender. Do not believe these lies.

This training is designed to manipulate and tribalize you in a Thin Blue Line mentality — to instill fear and suspicion in you where compassion and bravery should live. These “specialists” will even use your responses in training to disqualify you if you show an understanding of these eternal truths that may not be easily dislodged from your mind, heart, and soul.

If you truly wish to serve, hold these truths dear. WE NEED YOU. Officers like you can make a difference. The act of standing up for what is right is inspiring to others on the force, and even those you may not think are noticing in the community.

Do not let sophisticated and intense training cause you to forget the simple truths and rules of morality in law. Learn the things your training does not teach about Natural Law and the principles you are learning here with the Thick Red Line Project. You know your neighbors best. Your true job as a peace officer is building relationships. Do not let them convince you to act at their bidding, but at the bidding of Freedom and in support of your neighbor’s freedom.

When you arrive at a scene it is your actions that may determine the future fates of all involved. Those actions must be guided by moral fortitude and true bravery. It is far easier to display both when you know the People are behind you, standing with you on the Thick Red Line.

Over the years, government has functioned to codify thinking contrary to freedom in our society. Ignorant and evil people are more likely today to occupy positions of power than wise and moral ones. Like our police training, the school system has also fallen victim to the power hungry. An “us against them” narrative exists along every fake racial, religious or other identity the “government” and “special” interests can conjure.

This is divide and conquer. It has become systematic in government institutions. Children are taught counterintuitive obedience to “laws” that are immoral, illogical and counter-productive. They are learning to fear the police and courts — and sadly, this fear is justified in too many cases. Civics is no longer taught in most public schools. Children become adults robbed of an understanding of how to participate in their own freedom.

At the same time people in government and others will use manipulative language in the media to tout that all police are heroes and saints to be worshipped, which we should know is impossible. We are all human, and as such flawed and capable of all behavior and levels of character that reside in the human spirit, good and bad. We too are individuals. We need not be a blinded blue line used as enforcers to the whims of would-be tyrants. Stand strong on conscience, morality and sacred honor. Good people do not crave power over others.

Natural Law vs. Gov’t Law (Politician Scribbles)

The difference between a “good law” and a “bad law” is a victim. Good laws have them, bad laws don’t. It is literally that simple… and that complex, in that it represents a legal and moral system called natural law with more than 1,000 years of tradition across multiple cultures.

Morality in Natural Law is so simple that a child can understand — which is exactly the way “rules” should be. It breaks down to 5–7 “laws” that are obviously universal “wrongs” because there is a victim: assault, theft, murder, rape, and coercion are examples of “wrongs”.

What is a “Right”? Anything that is not a “Wrong”!

It is your right, and everyone else’s natural law right, to do whatever you want, so long as you aren’t infringing on the equal natural law rights of others. That is the beginning and end of morality.

Because you and everyone else has the same Natural Law right to defend your own life, liberty, and property, that is a right you can, by mutual agreement, delegate to a security guard or militia to exercise on your behalf and in your defense. And because none of us have a Natural Law right to decide what our neighbor chooses to do, not do, buy, or consume — whether or not they should wear a seatbelt, mask, or be forced to take a vaccine on their private sovereign person — it is logically and morally impossible for any elected or unelected “government” to delegate “rights” it does not have, or ask you to enforce laws contrary to these truths.

If we as individuals (We the People) do not have the moral natural law right to do a thing (steal / “tax”, extortion, kidnapping, forcing someone to wear a seat belt or mask, etc.) then we cannot “delegate” a “right” we do not possess to a “representative” or “government” or agent or officer.

Because we are sheriffs, deputies, or police officers makes no difference. In fact, our choice of career places the greatest responsibility upon us in our daily work for the People, to ensure the Thick Red Line is reestablished and maintained and this truth is upheld in honoring our oath to serve. By refusing to enforce laws that have no victim you are saying YES to morality and saying NO to any “government” who would have you rob your friends, neighbors and community to raise revenue to pay for their political promises and bankrupt ideas.

Understanding Victimless Crimes

Even a cursory understanding of history reveals that all laws and governments are not “just”. Fugitive slave laws, Jim Crow laws, and laws mandating that people be turned over to a “government” for ethnic or religious reasons are well known examples where “Law” and “order following” led to tyranny and oppression on a massive scale.

Politicians count on peace officers not questioning immoral or unethical orders and enforcing immoral and unethical “laws” on their friends, neighbors and relatives to raise revenue for their schemes. Luckily, any officer can understand the basics of morality and ethics to be able to push back on immoral, illogical and/or unethical “laws” and orders.

The natural, moral and obvious standard for the decision to use or threaten violence

Obviously, any system of law should be so simple that even a child could understand it. That system exists and has existed for over 1,000 years, and it is known as Natural Law. The whole of the law can be broken down into one simple truth: Do No Harm. People that harm other people are rightly called criminals and their crimes are apparent because there is a victim.

When politicians and “government” try to enforce morality and/or socially engineer society using “Law” they frequently pervert the concept of “Law”. It changes the dynamic of the police as protector to police as oppressor. This attempted change from peace officer to law enforcement has poisoned the relationship between the police and the People. The People rightly resist having violence used against them in the enforcement of victimless crimes and revenue generation through citation and confiscation.

Enforcing victimless crimes makes the police the criminals

The ugly, hard bitter pill that modern policing needs to swallow is that when peace officers use violence against peaceful people that aren’t harming anyone, it makes criminals out of cops. When you arrest someone for voluntary and consensual production and consumption of goods, services, or activities, or for not closing their business based on alleged health emergencies, flawed disease models and media propaganda, the arresting officer becomes the criminal — violating the fundamentals of free choice and association. No temporary perceived security can justify such an act in the name of law. “Laws” that violate the fundamental laws of man are no laws at all.

An officer arresting someone that hasn’t harmed anyone else is wrong. The officer has crossed the line to crime in their actions. An officer is personally liable and morally responsible for any harm caused in detention, and any consequences that may extend from that action as to lost opportunity and physical or emotional damages. It is no different than effecting a kidnapping, and holding the person and/or property at ransom. “Government” as non-person cannot be harmed, and deserves no reward or restitution from the People ever.

The population is starting to notice

More and more community organizations are noticing the inherent unfairness of victimless crimes. Recently, around 2,000 mathematicians signed a letter urging the mathematics community to boycott collaboration with the police. The smartest folks on the planet are openly distrustful of their supposed protectors — and organizations are explaining this inherent unfairness to their kids.

Even if your department isn’t under assault and facing a potential defunding of your operations, going THICK RED LINE will dramatically improve relations with your community. THICK RED LINE restores respect for law enforcement by refocusing your department on PROTECTION instead of ENFORCEMENT.

If your department is facing calls for defunding, then going THICK RED LINE proves to the community that you are a noble department focused on the right things. Begin to defuse racial tension and civil unrest by abandoning the practices that cause racial tension and unrest.

Ending victimless crimes breaks the backs of drug cartels, pimps, and human traffickers

It reduces overdoses, police corruption, and eliminates 60,000+ high risk SWAT raids a year, with additional benefits to officers, the public, taxpayer and society. As prohibition of alcohol proved, whenever government makes something the population desires illegal it doesn’t get rid of that substance — it creates a very profitable black market that imposes a de-facto “value-added tax” collected by organized crime. The result is outrageous profits for criminals with well-known problems and consequences for police and the population:

Honest and intelligent police officers, judges, and prosecutors who also realize this have organized themselves into Law Enforcement Against Prohibition (LEAP), recently renamed the Law Enforcement Action Partnership, to address a wider range of institutionalized criminality in monopoly policing including arrest quotas, civil asset forfeiture, “stop and frisk” and police militarization among others.

Ending prohibition of sex work breaks the backs of pimps

Enforcing prohibition has the unintended consequence of creating and strengthening the relationship of the opportunist pimp who provides “protection,” as his charges are unable to rely on the protections of the police for their property and person due to their prohibited status. Relegated to expect non-personhood in the eyes of the “law,” they are prejudged as unworthy of the basic protections we all deserve in a free society.

The freedom to engage in voluntary activities that the majority disapprove of are among the most important to recognize and protect. Judge not lest ye be judged. Ending prohibition of sex work would bring those people into the light, where those engaged could seek the basic freedom and protection that should be afforded us all. It also dramatically reduces the costs associated with apprehending, trying, and incarcerating victimless crimes.

What does refusal to enforce look like on the street and in your department?

Non-compliance is easy: don’t enforce bad laws. The THICK RED LINE Project aims to de-fang and privatize — rather than de-fund — the monopoly police, and to restore honor to their profession by supporting them in a widespread refusal to enforce victimless crimes.

The Thick Red Line Project’s guide to victimless crimes begins with one question: determine if a law represents a victimless crime.

• Orders that are repugnant to the Constitution are null and void.
• The defense of “I was just following orders” doesn’t protect you legally, morally or karmically from the consequences of your actions.

Understanding the potential consequences of refusal to enforce

What are the potential ramifications to the officers for taking a THICK RED LINE stand? This section is coming soon. We are interested in speaking with labor attorneys and police union officials to better understand the ramifications. Please contact us at Info@ThickRedLine.info to help or contribute.

We already know that there are officers around the country and world who are refusing to enforce victimless crimes, but there can be retribution for individual officers — especially in departments that have official and/or unofficial quota systems based on predatory traffic enforcement or civil asset forfeiture. This is why we recommend that individual officers build consensus with the other officers or deputies and supervisors, and the sheriff or chief. If you are united and supported by your fellow officers and the People, there is no way the politicians can force you.

What is the impact on sheriff and police department revenue?

In short, we don’t know, because it is different with every department. Some jurisdictions where drug decriminalization occurred have dramatically reduced arrests and incarcerations, while in other jurisdictions prohibition-fueled violence and enforcement continue. We suspect the answer is that it is a wash when you include the costs of incarceration, court costs, facilities, overtime, and pension expense which, unfortunately, usually come out of other budgets — creating the wrong incentives to reduce enforcement of victimless crimes that are actually costing counties, cities, and towns more money than they bring in, while creating injustice and unintended consequences.

Important — this is an area where we would like to expand. We are interested in organizations that have done research into the costs and revenue associated with victimless crimes. Please contact us at Info@ThickRedLine.info.

Organizing and/or privatizing your department

1. Discuss with your closest friends first (in and outside the department)

• Build support among your circle of influence first.
• Elicit support from the respected leaders and elders in your department and community next.
• Contact us at Info@ThickRedLine.info (or ThickRedLine@Protonmail.com to assure confidentiality).

2. Organize an off-site department-wide meeting to discuss the opportunity

• Once you have support from formal and informal leaders in the department, organize an off-site meeting at a local library, church or other meeting venue.
• Explain the rationale and field questions.

Alternatives to monopoly policing

If the government’s monopoly laws, police and courts disappeared tomorrow, the overwhelming majority of society would not turn to murder or crime — not because there wasn’t an “official law” prohibiting it, but because most people aren’t murderers or thieves. Most people could safely get away with innumerable petty theft today with little risk of getting caught: from their employer, from their colleagues, from their neighbor’s open garage, from their friends’ homes and purses. But they do not. Not because they fear being caught in the act by the monopoly police, but from a myriad of reasons ranging from religious beliefs, to strong personal ethics, understanding of karma, to fear of being fired or shunned from their social circles. The fact that a bureaucrat or politician wrote down that stealing is wrong on an official piece of paper is way down at the bottom of the list. A study by professors James D. Wright and Peter Rossi that surveyed nearly 2,000 incarcerated felons concluded that criminals are more worried about running into armed victims than law enforcement. Absent monopoly policing, all these protections and deterrents would still be in place.

Because there is a universal demand for safe streets, businesses, and neighborhoods, there is obviously a market for private protective services. Indeed, because bureaucratic monopoly policing is focused on victimless crimes, it is doing such a poor job with respect to protection that private security companies flourish even in competition with a “free” provider. These companies often offer innovative services: home security systems, 24x7x365 monitoring, and armed response. Not only do these companies have similar training and equipment as the police, but in many ways they are far superior in the eyes of the public: they only act in defense of life, liberty and property, do not pretend to have “qualified immunity,” and have no incentive or ability to engage in road piracy or arresting peaceful people for victimless crimes.

Positioning your department for privatization

Because the legitimacy of “government” is now being widely and openly questioned by the population, forward-thinking sheriffs and chiefs will already be thinking about how they can privatize operations in an era where monopoly policing no longer has the support of the population.

1. Reduce headcount to only what you need to protect life, liberty and property. You can completely eliminate officers assigned to narcotics, vice, school resource officers, and D.A.R.E. programs.
2. Reduce intimidating, invasive, and extravagant expenditures such as armored vehicles, drones, stingray cell phone towers, SWAT teams and license plate readers.
3. Refocus the department on preventing real crimes: murder, burglaries, rapes, and robberies.
4. Become a scholar on police privatization and the existing alternatives, from private protection companies like Detroit Threat Management to private communities who are providing their own police services.
5. Plan for a transition year where tax revenue collected under the threat of force will be replaced with voluntary payments from merchants and private residences. Expect and embrace competition with Brinks, ADT, Westec and other private security companies.
6. Create partnerships with alarm system providers, insurance investigators, and other self-interested businesses.
7. Renounce qualified immunity. Your officers don’t get a pass on morality or facing the consequences of their actions.
8. Think and focus like an entrepreneur on delivering a quality service — crime prevention and restitution vs. retribution — where your officers are focused on protecting the customer vs. raising revenue off the population.

Private police FAQs

What about people who couldn’t afford protection?

Private security companies such as Detroit Threat Management help non-customers in the communities that they protect, for free, for a variety of reasons: first, it is good marketing in the community; second, taking criminals off the streets ultimately protects their clients as well; and finally, good guys like to bust bad guys.

What is to stop a private defense agency from going rogue and taking over a neighborhood or town like a warlord?

Unlike the monopoly police, PDAs can easily be fired by switching providers. It is unlikely that a successful company would endanger their business, and doubtful that the employees would go along with it — especially knowing they would be facing an armed population and likely retaliation from rival private defense agencies who would immediately be hired to deal with an imminent threat like a rogue PDA.

By the Numbers

Excerpts from the Prison Policy Initiative’s 2020 report Mass Incarceration: The Whole Pie 2020, the Drug Policy Alliance’s Drug War Statistics page, and other resources.

The American criminal justice system holds almost 2.3 million people in 1,833 state prisons, 110 federal prisons, 1,772 juvenile correctional facilities, 3,134 local jails, 218 immigration detention facilities, and 80 Indian Country jails, as well as in military prisons, civil commitment centers, state psychiatric hospitals, and prisons in the U.S. territories. Every year, over 600,000 people enter prison gates, but people go to jail 10.6 million times each year.

About 5,000 people in prison — less than 1% — are employed by private companies through the federal PIECP program, which requires them to pay at least minimum wage before deductions. (A larger portion work for state-owned “correctional industries,” which pay much less, but this still only represents about 6% of people incarcerated in state prisons.)

But prisons do rely on the labor of incarcerated people for food service, laundry and other operations, and they pay incarcerated workers unconscionably low wages: a 2017 study found that on average, incarcerated people earn between 86 cents and $3.45 per day for the most common prison jobs. In at least five states, those jobs pay nothing at all. Moreover, work in prison is compulsory, with little regulation or oversight, and incarcerated workers have few rights and protections. Forcing people to work for low or no pay and no benefits allows prisons to shift the costs of incarceration to incarcerated people — hiding the true cost of running prisons from most Americans.

In 2019, the Council of State Governments found that 1 in 4 people in state prisons are incarcerated as a result of supervision violations. The “massive misdemeanor system” in the U.S. is another important but overlooked contributor to over-criminalization and mass incarceration. For behaviors as benign as jaywalking or sitting on a sidewalk, an estimated 13 million misdemeanor charges sweep droves of Americans into the criminal justice system each year (and that’s excluding civil violations and speeding). These low-level offenses account for over 25% of the daily jail population nationally, and much more in some states and counties.

Another 39,000 people are civilly detained by U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) not for any crime, but simply for their undocumented immigrant status. ICE detainees are physically confined in federally-run or privately-run immigration detention facilities, or in local jails under contract with ICE. An additional 3,600 unaccompanied children are held in the custody of the Office of Refugee Resettlement (ORR), awaiting placement with parents, family members, or friends.

Further Reading

“Ain’t Nobody’s Business If You Do” by Peter McWilliams (ISBN 0-931580-58-7) — a book criticizing the existence of laws against consensual crimes.

Law Enforcement Action Partnership — police officers, judges and prosecutors organized against institutionalized criminality in monopoly policing.