Shakedown
Here’s the deal with for-profit policing: cops hate it.
But as state and local government continue to cut taxes for businesses and wealthy residents, the money to keep the lights on has to come from somewhere.
That’s what generates “performance benchmarks” and all the other terms officials use to label ticket quotas.
But if you work as a cop in places like Fergsuon, Missouri, or Waldo, Florida, you don’t get to set enforcement priorities. You just have to write enough people up.
The head of the union representing police officers that work for the California State University system says his members are being told to forget about public safety and to concentrate on bringing in cash.
This is particularly obscene, considering what universities charge for tuition.
“[CSUN] using this as a money-making system is insane,” said Jeffrey Solomon, president of the Statewide University Police Association. “It’s a huge business. It’s money making, pure and simple.”
“What is ironic about this is they [CSUN] have a parking enforcement edition,” Solomon said. “You have the cops away from patrol looking for bad people to go write parking tickets.”
No one outside of the associations in law enforcement seems to have to much to say about the new way police are being used to extract more revenue from taxpayers and college kids.
And as long as that’s the case, it’s likely this whole revenue-based policing crap is going to get a lot worse before it stands a chance of getting any better.
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