I don't like the sound of this!

[ballen0351]

Given the fact that each state, town, city, will vary from one another, how can you possibly dictate what a small town does, vs. a large city?

Could not agree more. I started out in police work in a small rural department. I would go on calls alone and sometimes my closest backup would be 30 min away. So no matter what I did I had to know I was doing it alone, domestics, stolen cars, burglaries, bar fights it didnt matter I had nobody. Ive since moved to a much larger city mainly because the pay was almost double. Now I go on a call you have to tell cops to stop coming we get so many. And God help the suspect when you call for help cause you will have 15 to 20 pissed off cops there in 3 min.

You could never teach all officers under 1 set of rules it just wouldnt work. My state laws are VERY different then say California (not picking on them but my partner came from LAPD so we talk about how things are different). Its just not practical.

 

[Tez3]

I don't know if this was to me or to Bill.
If it was to me, then put yourself in my position for a moment.
I find this forum full of Brits who all confirm that locking blades are banned. A Brit on another forum mentioned the same thing in a discussion. Spyderco designs and markets a blade specifically for the UK market without a lock, even though it is the only non locking blade they have, and have been making them for a long time. Not to mention the bloody thing is dangerous because it might snap shut on your fingers.

Here is a similar thread on a different website

Which contains this reference to the actual laws



So what am I else supposed to conclude from these things?

That it's extremely old and out of date, John Patten was in the Home Office in 1980-1981. he was in Maggie Thatcher's Conservative government, we've had a few governments and laws since then.

I did tell you locking knives were illegal btw.

 

[jks9199]

Not just the states -- but the localities.

I agree with state-level minimum training standards; they've led to increased professionalism in law enforcement. And I don't even have a problem with national level standards, especially for interoperability reasons. We learned in 2001 and again a few years ago with Katrina that it's vital for LEOs from around the country to be able to work together in an emergency. I live and work in an area with three state-level (DC, MD, & VA) plus various federal jurisdictions. Criminals and emergencies don't respect jurisdictional lines.

But each jurisdiction (down to the smallest town) needs to also be able to assess their own needs and what they want their officers to do. Archangel, Punisher, and I all work for different jurisdictions, and I bet they're different on several levels. The way I do things may be great for me -- but suck for one of them. I may do something daily that they rarely do... while they do something daily that I haven't looked at since the academy. My agency reflects the culture of our municipality, in what we focus on and in what we do. And so will theirs. And that's not even getting into "special" jurisdictions like Alcoholic Beverage Control agents or federal police or special agents. (Yes, they have both. And both do different things. And a federal police officer or special agent has almost no local jurisdiction.)

 

[KELLYG]

My first thought on this is if you have Police from say Mayberry, Los Angeles, New York, Arizona, Chicago and Fargo. What a Police officer Knows and will use in each of these areas will be completely different. Most of it will not translate well or be useful in their home towns. Then there will have to be 2 different types of training. One Nationally and one locally and this will actually be more costly than leaving it as it is.

 

[sgtmac_46]

http://www.policeone.com/patrol-issues/articles/3139476-The-federalization-of-local-law-enforcement/



Is the idea of individual STATES really that dead???? Im beginning to wonder if the right side really did win the Civil War.

Nothing new here........the Feds have been wanting to grab this kind of power for quite some time.........but doing it slow enough that everyone can still say those who predict are 'paranoid'.

 

[sgtmac_46]

Actually the United States is exactly like the UK! We have different countries with different laws, we even have the Isle of Man which is a British Protectorate not part of the UK, we have the Channel Islands with quite a different system of law and justice. Scotland as I said has also a different justice system as does Northern Ireland. In Wales it's not just different laws it's a different language as well.

There's a lot of police training that doesn't actually involve the law though, and that could certainly be standardised. Driver training and riot control training for example could be done in one place saving money, it's hard times you know and saving money is always good

How would that save money in the United States? How would shipping trainees hundreds or thousands of miles away to a centralized federal training facility save any money in the slightest?

 

[sgtmac_46]

It's not so much socialist but it would certainly suit a government of any ilk that wanted a police service to control a whole county. Many countries that you consider socialist have a federal police force because the size of the country doesn't warrant having separate forces, the cost would be prohibitive, it's nothing to do with politics.
One of the things here that is looked at often is merging the forces in England at least, the high cost of policing is proving hard to sustain, to have separate training facilites, vehicles etc is becoming hard to justify. it is not always about politics but money.

You just said the magic words 'Suit a government of any ilk that wanted a police service to control a whole country.'

As the united states was founded under the notion of state sovereignty, we view Federalization of police powers as an intentional erosion of that natural sovereignty.........call that right wing if you like.

In the United States police forces answer directly to the citizens they police in a manner a federalized police force would not.

 

[sgtmac_46]

Well I expect my 20 years as a copper means nothing really.

None of it spent policing here, which makes it entirely irrelevant. I'll grant you expert status on policing in the UK.

The reality in the US is that decentralization allows police in the US to respond more quickly to localized situations. Creating a vast bureaucracy doesn't serve to benefit the American people.......it does serve the benefit of growing the power of a federal bureaucracy.