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Ya know, it would be nice if every time a cop had any contact with a suspected criminal (after they are detained or before any qwuestions are asked) everyone got a freee lawyer on the spot. Something has to be done to keep these cops in check and stop them from constantly threatening with the color of law and getting away with it.
@volkris the problem is the cops wont care about time wasted, the department might but individual cops are like toddlers, they arent thinking that far ahead.
I doubt a department would act against the officer eitherthey will just demand the extra cost stops them from doing their job, go over budget and let the tax payers sort it out like they already do.
@freemo firstly, hey free pay for the people that get stopped!
Honestly the part of my plan I worry about the most is people intentionally looking guilty trying to be stopped to make a quick buck.
But the cops don't get to just raise taxes on their own.
The department would have to stand in front of city councils, legislatures, etc, to explain why money needs to be diverted from schools and other popular programs, or why taxes need to be raised, because some jerks of officers keep harassing citizens without showing results.
When the department sees its budget trashed to the point where it needs to start firing people, they're going to fire the offenders first, which is a pretty good reason not to be an offender.
@volkris They just wont fire people, they will let their budget go to 0 and then they wont be able to afford peoples "compensation". Cant pay people their compensation if its all gone on salary first.
@freemo I don't know how you expect to pay people out of a $0 budget!
@volkris Thats exactly my point, salaries always must be paid first legally speaking so the only consequence will be there is nothing left to pay the people in the end.
@freemo That's only true, legally speaking, if that's what the law says!
Yes, there would have to be a law saying cops owe people compensation for their time. And there's no particular reason that the law can't explicitly say that the compensation takes priority over pay. It might even be implicitly true even if it's not made explicit that way.
Police departments do run out of money in the real world, and they even have to close down and fire all the cops occasionally. I know if at least one instance of exactly that happening, when some officers really screwed up and the costs of dealing with their screw up broke the budget of the department, so they had to fold, firing everybody.
If the department has to give up conveniences and then has salaries at risk because officers are detaining people without justifiable reason, they're going to feel that pain.
@volkris Ok yea I guess you could do that, especially if someone else controls the money that isnt a cop friend or something.. But I still think the only result of that will be more money spent and nothing solved... and a lot of people running down the street naked begging to be arrested :)
@freemo Oh but to be clear, a person who's guilty of something with $1,000 fine might be given 20 bucks for their time but they still have to pay the $1,000 fine!
@volkris Sure but they will also be happy to not pay the bail and sit in jail for a year just for the free meal and free pay... stay long enough your paid more than they fine you at some point.
@freemo What if you had lawyers ride along in every cop car? Or force every cop to pass the bar exam every 5 or 10 years?
@realcaseyrollins That was my first thought. My fear would be if they ride around together they will form a friendship and therefore be biased to not defend the clients to the best of their abilities.
In some areas I lived cops ride alone but there are rtules they need a second cop present to make a stop. So they would stop you then wait for a second cop to arrive before continuing. It would be like that but a lawyer instead of a cop as the backup
@freemo Oh, well I was thinking you’d just put a lawyer in the car to save the time and trouble. Easy money for the lawyer if nothing happens, but makes for quicker arrests if something does happen.
@realcaseyrollins It would be trickier to do it right but yea that could work if there is care taken to make sure the pool is big enough
@freemo What if you didn’t pair them with cops though, and assigned the lawyers to cop cars in a randomized way?
@realcaseyrollins so the lawyer would change everyday? That could work but the pool would have to be pretty large to not allow a lot of repeats that serves the same problem. Afterall we already see whole police departments where cops will cheat to protect another cop who isnt their partner
@freemo
Neural networks FTW.
It's most likely solution. I doubt they'll make stationary lawyer stations like stationary defibrillators 🤔
@freemo I've always thought that any time somebody has to stop and deal with a cop they should be compensated for their time, out of the agency's budget.
If you're stopped for a traffic stop for 10 minutes, even if you are guilty, they pay you for your time. If you get brought in for questioning, again whether you are guilty or not, paid for your time.
If police departments have to give up their budgets to pay people for the inconvenience they impose on them, maybe they would be more careful about who they detain and how efficiently they do what they need to do.
I'm not even on board with ACAB. I just think this would be a fair way to align interests more positively.
But it does mean that any officer that is stopping too many people without good reasons would probably be held accountable by the police department that's losing too much money on him.