Calcutta Officials Seek to Employ Private Security to Replace Police

[1stWatch]

Calcutta, India:
The trade hub of Burrabazar is discussing employing private security on a major scale after a rash of crime involving armed robberies and violent crimes. The police are being blamed in this case for not doing their jobs since the public is not seeing results quickly enough if at all for these cases.

http://www.telegraphindia.com/106020...ry_5816323.asp

[N. A. Corbier]

Calcutta, India:
The trade hub of Burrabazar is discussing employing private security on a major scale after a rash of crime involving armed robberies and violent crimes. The police are being blamed in this case for not doing their jobs since the public is not seeing results quickly enough if at all for these cases.

http://www.telegraphindia.com/106020...ry_5816323.asp

From what I understand, in Europe, Securitas is a premier provider of town marshal's and other law enforcement officers for small towns and villages who cannot afford full time police services.

I also seem to remember that a town in the US replaced their police force with a security company. The IACP, FOP, and PBA went insane. The security force lasted a month or so, before State Police were ordered to respond to the township's calls for service. They were eventually required to hire back the police department under terms that were extremely favorable to the union.

[1stWatch]

From what I understand, in Europe, Securitas is a premier provider of town marshal's and other law enforcement officers for small towns and villages who cannot afford full time police services.

I also seem to remember that a town in the US replaced their police force with a security company. The IACP, FOP, and PBA went insane. The security force lasted a month or so, before State Police were ordered to respond to the township's calls for service. They were eventually required to hire back the police department under terms that were extremely favorable to the union.

This being India and there being a prominence of class A personalities, it seems this move is being done to spite the public police agencies and does cost the business owners more to employ. I can foresee a lot of friction between the security forces and police because of this issue.

[OccamsRazor]

Having been to India, I can only hope that the guards would be more professional and well-paid than the police. I remember being stopped at police 'checkpoints' everywhere we went, and having to pay bribes to pass. They would even make change! I asked (through the interpreter we had hired) a cop how much money they made, the reply was something like $1.50 a day on the official salary, at a time when we were paying our interpreter $20.00 a day. The police were also very poorly equipped and uniformed in what looked more like hand-me-downs than issued clothing.