Policing For Profit

Power corrupts, we all heard it, we all know it. What we don't hear nearly enough though, is that profits corrupt as well, maybe even more than power. We see this happening literally everywhere, but when even the institutions that are designed to "serve and protect" us succumb to the corrupting powers of profits, we're in a dire situation indeed...

So, this is nothing new and should surprise no one. Dangle a bonus or a prize in front of people, and they'll gladly break rules to get that prize. In the corporate world we use systems of targets and incentives to incentivize workers to produce more. They're presented with a target, and promised a bonus if they reach and exceed that target. Or individual workers or teams are pitched against each other, with the promise of a bonus for the one that reaches the highest conversion rates. If you've worked in any corporate office, you'll know of this practice. You'll also know of the cheating and fraud committed in order to reach the targets. One dire example: when schools are forced to compete against each other on test results and graduation percentages, there's nothing simpler than to lower the difficulty of the tests and exams. Schools publish their results online, and parents choose schools based on those results; there's every incentive for schools to keep graduation percentages high to keep customers, and money, coming in, and making tests easier is easier and cheaper than offering better education.

Everything we do for profits eventually falls prey to this phenomenon. In yesterday's post I wrote about how products are made to wear long before they have to, just to keep profits up. Our entire economy is based on profitability, preventing us to work on ways to make better products that are accessible to all people. But if you work hard and manage to accumulate a slice of the pie for yourself, you count on the police to protect you from the greedy hands of burglars and other thieves. Right? Well, it turns out that in many cases it's the police who rob your stuff and your money. In America there exists a process called civil forfeiture in which law enforcement officers take assets from people who are suspected of involvement with crime or illegal activity without necessarily charging the owners with wrongdoing. This is in contrast with criminal forfeiture, which requires prosecutors to prove beyond a reasonable doubt that an owner is guilty of a crime and then, in the same proceeding, prove the property is connected to the crime.

In the 2020 report Policing for Profit it's established that since 2000, states and the federal government forfeited a combined total of at least $68.8 billion! And the kicker is that it's mostly small amounts that are confiscated, meaning that this procedure is mostly used against middle class and lower class citizens, and not so much against crime bosses or white collar frauds. It's claimed that abolishing civil forfeiture would increase crime rates, but that's not proven at all. On the contrary:

This edition of Policing for Profit presents new research indicating that states can adopt stronger forfeiture reforms without compromising public safety. The study examines New Mexico’s best-in-the nation forfeiture laws, adopted in 2015. To see whether abolishing civil forfeiture negatively impacted public safety, the study compares New Mexico’s crime rates to those of neighboring Colorado and Texas before and after reform.

Contrary to claims that abolishing civil forfeiture would increase crime rates, multiple analyses across five different measures of crime find no evidence of any negative effect from New Mexico’s reform.

The state’s overall crime rate did not rise following the reform, nor did arrest rates drop, strongly suggesting civil forfeiture is not an essential crimefighting tool and law enforcement agencies can fulfill their mission without it.
_{source: Policing for Profit}

That leaves us with the conclusion that civil forfeiture is maintained for one reason only; to make profits and to help fund the already lavishly funded police departments. The below linked video shows one example that's been caught on camera, where two police officers steal $6,000 from some poor lady. Watch the video to understand how widespread this practice really is, and hopefully you'll join me in concluding that profits, as a primary goal for all our interactions, is the root of much evil...

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