This is good news. If you treat (and pay) the police like professionals, it is more likely they will act like professionals. I use the term professional, even though academics do still quibble over whether policing is a profession. I believe, for the most part, policing qualifies as a profession in the traditional sense of the word, though the lack of uniform educational standards makes my argument a bit weaker. What do you think, Peter?
Anyway, higher pay won’t be a panacea for any department. Ending the drug war, however, could usher in a new, creative era of policing that will bring us closer to the kind of law enforcement that a free society should have and its citizens should come to expect.
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This is good news. If you treat (and pay) the police like professionals, it is more likely they will act like professionals. I use the term professional, even though academics do still quibble over whether policing is a profession. I believe, for the most part, policing qualifies as a profession in the traditional sense of the word, though the lack of uniform educational standards makes my argument a bit weaker. What do you think, Peter?
Anyway, higher pay won’t be a panacea for any department. Ending the drug war, however, could usher in a new, creative era of policing that will bring us closer to the kind of law enforcement that a free society should have and its citizens should come to expect.