Profitable Policing

          For as long as government has existed, bureaucrats have imagined problems that supposedly only they can solve and then sought the power and money to solve them.  The power that bureaucrats say they need is usually at the expense of liberty and always requires money from citizens. 

          Red light cameras are an excellent example.  Several cities in Washington State have already installed the cameras or plan to do so.  While law enforcement denies it, many have speculated that traffic tickets are a source of revenue for cities and towns.  With the help of the camera, any police department can issue more ticket while using less officers on traffic patrol.  From their perspective, red light cameras are a win (more money)-win (less cost) proposition.  If you doubt that police department look at it this way ask yourself, would the police support traffic cameras if it cost them money?  I don’t think so. 

          So, cities and towns across the nation declare that there is a problem with people running red lights and therefore a need to install traffic cameras.  Once the cameras are in place they do catch people running the light (often just by fractions of a second), tickets are issued and revenue for local government increases. 

          Justice should be blind, or fair, but so should law enforcement.  Asset forfeiture laws allow police to seize property used or gained from alleged criminal activity.    This allows police agencies to fund significant portions of their operations from seized assets.  This may seem like a good idea, but if police operations or arrests are determined by the money or property that can be taken from an alleged offender, even before they are convicted, it hardly blind justice.  Further, some agencies keep the money generated from the sale of seized property for salaries and promotions or for other discretionary spending.  This definitely puts the profit motive into police work. 

          Increasingly law enforcement is not about the law or justice, but about the money that can be made.  This should never be.