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Cash-strapped Minnesota town hires private guards for policing duties

davegran

davegran

Regular Member
Joined
May 1, 2009
Messages
1,563
Location
Cassville Area -Twelve Miles From Anything, Wiscon
THE FORCE IS NOT WITH YOU

A small Minnesota town is set to embark on a radical civic experiment: replacing cops with a private security force.

Yesterday, wearing uniforms and carrying sidearms, security guards began doing 24-hour patrols every day of the week on the shady streets of Foley, a community of 2,600 surrounded by farmland, northeast of St. Cloud.
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:uhoh:
 
H

Herr Heckler Koch

Guest
That will make for some interesting jurisprudence and supporting legislation.
 
hermannr

hermannr

Regular Member
Joined
Mar 24, 2011
Messages
2,327
Location
Okanogan Highland
Out here, the towns that do not want to, or do not have the funds to, pay for their own police department, just contract with the county sheriff for law enforcement coverage. I can think of 100 legal reasons you would not want private secuity guards doing actual police work.

Little town out here had what I think is the correct idea. The dismissed their two or was it three policemen, then they contacted with the county Sheriff for coverage, and passed a law stating everyone in town was expected (required, but with exceptions) to have a firearm for their own self defence,.
 
H

Herr Heckler Koch

Guest
We must need to remind them that we alone are responsible for our personal and civic safety.
 
A

amaixner

Regular Member
Joined
Mar 26, 2008
Messages
308
Location
Linn County, Iowa
This sounds like, maybe, the second worst idea in the history of bad ideas. May as well just pay a courier service to drive around a lot and call the sheriff if something looks bad, as that avoids the confusion presented by security guards that aren't really able to do anything.

Or, ya know, just not waste money on the 'security patrol' at all, and tell people to call the sheriff when necessary.
 
skidmark

skidmark

Campaign Veteran
Joined
Jan 15, 2007
Messages
10,444
Location
Valhalla
So the town hired armed security officers to "provide a team of dedicated guards and vehicles and enforce town codes like parking violations".

The guards, meanwhile, will not enforce any state laws but will carry permitted firearms — although not on the grounds of Foley’s largest institution, the 1,700-student public school complex. They will have no access to police radios or dispatch services. Nor is there a plan to forward to the guards any 911 calls from Foley residents that deputies will no longer respond to — including ones for routine, nonemergency issues like noise complaints.
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And the AG has already warned them of the limits those armed security guards are under regarding any response to any crime they observe (and possibly report).

Aside from all the quasi-legal, quasi-governmental stuff everybody else is focusing on, this is just a waste of the taxpayers' money. It would be better spent throwing a party.

stay safe.
 
MKEgal

MKEgal

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Joined
Jan 8, 2010
Messages
4,383
Location
in front of my computer, WI
Nor is there a plan to forward to the guards any 911 calls from Foley residents that deputies will no longer respond to
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When residents know this, they'll stop calling.

Wait... according to the news article:
The Benton County Sheriff’s Department continues to be responsible for responding to emergencies in Foley, as in other areas of the county that don’t have their own protection.
Residents still need to call 911 for all emergencies in Foley.
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So the county sheriff is still held responsible for the taxpayers of the county, even if the town they live in hasn't paid the tithe. But the second-closest help (private guards) won't be notified.
:eek:
(The closest help, of course, being the citizens themselves.)
 
MKEgal

MKEgal

Regular Member
Joined
Jan 8, 2010
Messages
4,383
Location
in front of my computer, WI
Here's something interesting from the link Doug posted:
[Riss v] City of New York for failing to protect her was, not surprisingly, unsuccessful.
The lone dissenting justice of New York's high court wrote in his opinion:
"What makes the City's position [denying any obligation to protect the woman] particularly difficult to understand is that, in conformity to the dictates of the law [she] did not carry any weapon for self-defense.
Thus, by a rather bitter irony she was required to rely for protection on the City of New York which now denies all responsibility to her."
Riss v. City of New York, 22 N.Y.2d 579, 293 NYS2d 897, 240 N.E.2d 860 (N.Y. Ct. of Ap. 1958).
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