5. The Future of Policing
In 100 years, we have gone from the steamship to the spaceship, but public education still consists of a speaker in front of blackboard addressing a passive array of listeners. Government domination freezes an industry and chills innovation.
There is a limit to what speed and strength can do for you, especially in a world of powersuits and intelligent vehicles. You can find all the facts and figures you want. The more recent they are, the larger the numbers. The fact is that privatized peace patrols are overwhelmingly the present and they will remain in the future as government continues to prove itself unable to protect people against unexpected hazards.
The model for policing will change from the paramilitary organization to a business or service model. Most of you today are not ready for the private sector because you still have the paradigms of public policing. We have shows on TV called COPS but none called Guards. We have LA Law but not LA Arbitration. Ultimately, though, it does not matter so much who pays the bills. What counts is what you bring to the job.
(This narrative accompanies a PowerPoint presentation created for CRIM 432: Police Organization, Prof. James Moore, Eastern Michigan University, Fall 2007.)
The future of policing will bring both incremental and unpredictable change.
Some of the basic assumptions will prove to be enduring and others are already obsolete.