Reply #170: I think you'll find....

[DoNotRefill]

that many cops are interested in "putting away bad people", not necessarily "putting away people who do bad things". There are plenty of cases of this, for example, the situation in Texas where the police in a small town framed a large percentage of the minority population for drug offenses in a case which got much media attention. In the minds of those police officers, apparently "minority status"="bad people".

If the overall crime rate drops dramatically, there's less interest in law and order with the regular populace, wouldn't you agree? I assume you saw Bowling for Columbine. One of the major themes of that movie was that we live in a society with an inordinate fear of crime. Without that fear of crime, why would we need so many police officers? The police are people too...they want opportunities to advance, and that often means an increase in the total number of police. It's like the old British military toast: "To bloody wars and sickly seasons." It's better to be able to advance due to an overall increase in staffing rather than from your superiors dying, isn't it?

Let me run this by you. Let's say that Canada's overall crime rate dropped 50%. What result would be likely for Canada's police forces? Would they get more or less money to fight crime? Now let's look at the other side. What result if Canada's overall crime rate rose 50%? More or less funding for the police departments?

If there's less crime, there's less need for police, just as when there's a war on, militaries grow, and when wars end, they inevitably shrink. This is basic stuff here.