To Serve and Protect

As we watch the decline of America accelerating into Billy Beck's "Endarkenment" we increasingly see comments on police brutality, authoritarian excess, governmental oppression, and jack-booted violence. Randy Balko at "The Agitator" seems to have a posting almost daily about an 87 year old grandmother being tazed, a confused Wal-Mart shopper being gunned down, or a citizen mis-identified and being brutalized.

I tend to dismiss these as the sort of aberrations that occur in a nation of 300 million people which is increasingly less sophisticated and daily immersed in a culture of numbing violence. I've known dozens of cops at all levels during my life and found them to be hard-working, dedicated, and generally constructive individuals. There might be a dull knife or two in the drawer, but there are a majority of mature, trained and prepared public servants. I'm not paranoid about the police...yet.

Certainly, we know that the police have authority and the tools of violence at their disposal. The potential always exists for misuse. It isn't unreasonable to wonder if they will be with the good people of America or will be co-opted by an authoritarian regime. Will they keep their oath or will they succumb to the temptations of the oppressors? It has happened too many times in history to be ignored.

That's why I grabbed this link from one of the comments at View From the Porch. It is Sir Robert Peel's "Principles of Policing"

Principles of policing

1. The basic mission for which the police exist is to prevent crime and disorder.
2. The ability of the police to perform their duties is dependent upon the public approval of police actions.
3. Police must secure the willing co-operation of the public in voluntary observation of the law to be able to secure and maintain the respect of the public.
4. The degree of co-operation of the public that can be secured diminishes proportionately to the necessity of the use of physical force.
5. Police seek and preserve public favour not by catering to public opinion, but by constantly demonstrating absolute impartial service to the law.
6. Police use physical force to the extent necessary to secure observance of the law or to restore order only when the exercise of persuasion, advice, and warning is found to be insufficient.
7. Police, at all times, should maintain a relationship with the public that gives reality to the historic tradition that the police are the public and the public are the police; the police being only members of the public who are paid to give full-time attention to duties which are incumbent upon every citizen in the interests of community welfare and existence.
8. Police should always direct their action strictly towards their functions, and never appear to usurp the powers of the judiciary.
9. The test of police efficiency is the absence of crime and disorder, not the visible evidence of police action in dealing with it.

When we recall that Sir Robert is the "Bobby" for whom the British bobbies are named and that they were long known for performing their police functions without firearms, we can appreciate how effective these principles can be.

The knowledge that a small number of police can only be effective when supported by the large number of the populace does much to reinforce the Hobbes principle that power to govern can only come from consent of the governed. It is not imposed upon the citizens but granted by the governed to those whom they select to govern them.