That would be a good start. The system as it currently stands is nothing more than a program for public control by means of city-funded street gangs. We don't need legions of heavily-armed bullies, psychos, and nutcases (each with a license to kill) roaming the streets.
In fact, we don't need police as police exist today at all. If they all vanished tomorrow it would not affect the lives of most people in my city. The police neither prevent nor reduce crime; they merely investigate it, and sometimes commit it.
What do we really need cops for, anyway? To investigate felonies? Private investigators could be hired to do criminal investigations on an ad hoc basis, and at far less cost (and danger) to the taxpayer. Patrol the streets? That can be done better from neighborhood police boxes staffed by unarmed officers who know the people in their neighborhood personally and aren't so stupid that they can't distinguish between criminals and people in trouble. Respond to emergencies? The cops don't do that well as it is; there's a reason people say, "Dial 911 and die". (And, as this poor woman found out, calling 911 can easily lead to an even bigger emergency than the one the caller started with.) I can see having some sort of code enforcement agency to keep restaurants and so forth in line with health regulations, and maybe a riot squad to put down civil unrest, but I see no need for an army of public-funded gangsters who do little but bust heads, hassle teenagers, and run speed traps.
Have you ever lived in a city where no effective law enforcement presence existed? I have: Los Angeles, after the '94 Northridge quake. The cops in the Valley were all busy pulling bodies out of the rubble; there was no "police presence", no 911 response, and no problems in my neighborhood. We all looked out for each other while the Blue Army was away. And guess what? Society didn't come to an end! Wow, how did we ever survive without Officer Stripsearch McTaser to keep us in line?
We need to zero out police budgets and rebuild the public safety system in this country from the ground up. Each locality would be centered on a small, professional core of armed military-style officers, assisted by a network of well-trained, unarmed neighborhood-based watchmen. Such a network would be far less prone to committing abuses, and would be much cheaper to operate besides. The police network in each locality ought to be under the control of a state police agency accountable to the legislature, and each state police authority should be under the supervision of a federal public safety commission, accountable to Congress. And all law enforcement officers and personnel should be subject to a strict federal criminal code regulating police conduct — something similar to the UCMJ.
This system works well in other countries; I believe it could work here as well.
And before you start calling names, I am as far from a Libertarian as a person can be. By FR standards, I'm something of an authoritarian. Check my profile if you don't believe me.
I like your idea but you know how people in government are nowadays all about protecting fiefdom and their own turf. May I ask why you don’t like liberty? “I am as far from a Libertarian as a person can be.”
What do we really need cops for, anyway?
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PLEASE!!!!! At least wait till I retire. I have a dounut shop and without cops my sales would slow down to nothing.