Why Can't I be both a Constable *and* a CLA member?

Smitty has asked me to address this question as it has apparently come up a number of times recently, and I can offer an historical perspective on what thoughts were going through our minds when the CLA was formed.

You will find all over the world, no matter what country or city, that the legislative/judicial branch is separated from the law enforcement branch. The reasons for this point to fairness. Basically it would be unfair for any one service to have that much power. It would lead to corruption. I will demonstrate with three examples.

Example One: Judge Dredd
Imagine a cop that was also your judge. A single person could arrest you and then sentence you to whatever punishment he chose. This works fine in a system where all of the Judge Dredds are honest, fair and honorable at all times and never have off days, but in reality we all know this system of justice will never work. Separation between law enforcement and the judicial branch are clearly needed in this particular case.

Example Two: The Lawyer Cop
Ok, you may ask, maybe a judge won't work, but how about a lawyer or barrister? Nope. Still no good. Imagine a punk has just robbed a liquor store and is being chased by an officer of the law. He runs down an alley only to find it dead ends in a chain link fence. The punk attempts to climb it to escape, but the cop grabs him, and throwing an armlock on him, slams him into the fence and throws the cuffs on. The punk says "Oh my god, how long do you think they will put me away for?" The cop answers by slipping a small card into the punk's pocket saying "Don't worry kid, call the number on that card, I'm an attorney. I'll get you off."

Example Three: The Police State
The worse scenario of all is one where the law makers and the law enforcers are one and the same, or at least function that way. Without any kind of restraint, we have what amounts to a Judge Dredd scenario, functioning as a group instead of an individial. At least in the Judge Dredd scenario there are other police/judges who may counter a corrupt one. But in a police state there is no such balance, just a huge unstoppable political machine with no entity to counter it. Think Nazi Germany,where the Nazi's were not just the political party and made the laws, but controlled the police force as well. They could make up an ridiculous law they wanted and the police would carry it out. And as we know, they did. Think about any dictatorship. It works the same way too. The people making the laws cannot run the police force, nor can the police force be allowed to make their own laws. Mixing the two eventually leads to a police state, and oppression.

I hope anyone reading this finds that it answered any questions they may have had, or at the very least, understands the reasoning behind the separation of legislation and law enforcement.

*** Bows ***