Private security guards -- a Band Aid solution for growing problems
October 2, 2023 7:40 AM Subscribe
This article puts the blame on defunding calls. Possibly this is true, but it's also a red flag to me in a centrist to near-right publication. Does anyone have any better insight into that? To me, it all seems like the handiwork of Ronald Reagan, the Sackler family, and the housing crisis.
posted by Countess Elena at 8:14 AM on October 2, 2023 [39 favorites]
posted by Countess Elena at 8:14 AM on October 2, 2023 [39 favorites]
Agreed Countess Elena, the article does a great job of painting a portrait of one dude who at the very least seems to be going above and beyond as a private security guard (with the possible aim of collectively warming us up to the idea of privatized policing), but it doesn't show a ton of follow-through on interrogating why the police might be having difficulty with recruiting/staffing right now, and why homelessness and mental illness and drug abuse are all surging in various parts of the country.
It's another example of the NYT reporting in loving detail on individual dots, but totally failing to connect them.
posted by Strange Interlude at 8:30 AM on October 2, 2023 [22 favorites]
It's another example of the NYT reporting in loving detail on individual dots, but totally failing to connect them.
posted by Strange Interlude at 8:30 AM on October 2, 2023 [22 favorites]
The word "defund" appears precisely once in the article, in a paragraph that also cites "rents soared to record highs and shelters filled to capacity," as well as mentioning insufficient resources to deal with drug addiction.
posted by eponym at 8:30 AM on October 2, 2023 [5 favorites]
posted by eponym at 8:30 AM on October 2, 2023 [5 favorites]
Yes, I don’t understand the defunding line. And note that he says “calls,” not actual defunding. I think he may just mean that being a cop has become deeply uncool, so recruiting is harder.
It’s true it only appears once, but it’s surprisingly handwavy mention of a controversial topic in a profile they sunk a lot of energy into.
posted by smelendez at 8:33 AM on October 2, 2023 [7 favorites]
It’s true it only appears once, but it’s surprisingly handwavy mention of a controversial topic in a profile they sunk a lot of energy into.
posted by smelendez at 8:33 AM on October 2, 2023 [7 favorites]
So we're living in Robocop now, basically.
These guys aren't a replacement for real law enforcement, nor can / should they be. It's not fair to them or to the public. The population of Seattle is what, 700k or so? The SPD budget has been increased, and for 2024 is $385.6 million, not including additional funding like emergency management and pensions. That's not the highest per capita spending on police in the country, but it's also nowhere near the lowest.
Where is the money going? How is it possible that a major metro area's police department has simply not doing so many aspects of what the public believed to be its job? Part of it is mass resignations and pitifully low new recruitment. Officers are leaving because they don't want to deal with accountability, blaming city politics. And whoever the target population is for recruitment, they're clearly not interested. How do you replace an entire police force that is apparently unfit for any purpose? I don't know where you'd even start. As bad as policing is in the USA, is there any body capable of acting as a temporary custodian of public safety while new professional police (something we don't have in the USA) is trained up and sworn in?
posted by 1adam12 at 8:38 AM on October 2, 2023 [12 favorites]
These guys aren't a replacement for real law enforcement, nor can / should they be. It's not fair to them or to the public. The population of Seattle is what, 700k or so? The SPD budget has been increased, and for 2024 is $385.6 million, not including additional funding like emergency management and pensions. That's not the highest per capita spending on police in the country, but it's also nowhere near the lowest.
Where is the money going? How is it possible that a major metro area's police department has simply not doing so many aspects of what the public believed to be its job? Part of it is mass resignations and pitifully low new recruitment. Officers are leaving because they don't want to deal with accountability, blaming city politics. And whoever the target population is for recruitment, they're clearly not interested. How do you replace an entire police force that is apparently unfit for any purpose? I don't know where you'd even start. As bad as policing is in the USA, is there any body capable of acting as a temporary custodian of public safety while new professional police (something we don't have in the USA) is trained up and sworn in?
posted by 1adam12 at 8:38 AM on October 2, 2023 [12 favorites]
There is a claim that 10 million was cut, but then funding was restored - they don't say by how much
posted by Selena777 at 8:39 AM on October 2, 2023 [1 favorite]
posted by Selena777 at 8:39 AM on October 2, 2023 [1 favorite]
I can tell you right now that in Minneapolis, private security does not assist unhoused people in any way, and frankly I doubt very much that private security in Portland does either. This guy sounds perfectly decent and like a guy that I would talk to while doing volunteer work even though he is security, but he's an outlier and I don't think it's very smart to let yourself be used as a talking point about how dangerous unhoused people are and how much we need more security. He might think it will create motive to help people, but it won't.
At this point in my life, I have seen some shit. Not as much as if I were one of the most serious activists I know, the people who are out there all the time, but I've intervened in fights, I've had someone break into my house fleeing from what I assume were drug dealers, I've spent plenty of time talking to unhoused people and the idea that our cities are hellscapes of dangerous people chasing each other with hatchets is just bigoted scaremongering. Like, I have seen scary things, but those scary things are overwhelmingly rare. I've also seen huge trash piles at encampments, but if you give unhoused people trash collection services, they don't leave huge piles of trash, something I have also witnessed.
We're cutting sticks for our own backs here. The cops and security and paranoia that we accept today are the cops, security and paranoia that will be used on us or people we love as things get worse down the road.
posted by Frowner at 8:44 AM on October 2, 2023 [51 favorites]
At this point in my life, I have seen some shit. Not as much as if I were one of the most serious activists I know, the people who are out there all the time, but I've intervened in fights, I've had someone break into my house fleeing from what I assume were drug dealers, I've spent plenty of time talking to unhoused people and the idea that our cities are hellscapes of dangerous people chasing each other with hatchets is just bigoted scaremongering. Like, I have seen scary things, but those scary things are overwhelmingly rare. I've also seen huge trash piles at encampments, but if you give unhoused people trash collection services, they don't leave huge piles of trash, something I have also witnessed.
We're cutting sticks for our own backs here. The cops and security and paranoia that we accept today are the cops, security and paranoia that will be used on us or people we love as things get worse down the road.
posted by Frowner at 8:44 AM on October 2, 2023 [51 favorites]
The rise of private security guards was something that snuck in so stealthily. It's sort of like, "now I see them everywhere and I can't unsee them."
posted by Kitteh at 8:48 AM on October 2, 2023 [4 favorites]
posted by Kitteh at 8:48 AM on October 2, 2023 [4 favorites]
There was a private security guy at a bar in New Mexico in the summer of 2022 and it freaked me the F out. Like, if some place has Paul Blart with an AR-15 hanging around, I am going to stop going there, forever.
posted by grumpybear69 at 8:53 AM on October 2, 2023 [19 favorites]
posted by grumpybear69 at 8:53 AM on October 2, 2023 [19 favorites]
Wow, this is a tough one.
I saw the headline and lead-in and thought, oh, great, here goes the NY Times again, hyping a crime surge that doesn't exist, more rage-fodder for the right.
Then I clicked through and saw Eli Saslow's byline. For those who aren't journalism junkies: for a decade or so at the Washington Post, Saslow wrote a ton of brilliant stories, all of them basically about the less privileged people struggling against a stacked system. And I thought, oh, great, the NYT has co-opted the single best journalist writing about America. If this were him at the Post, he'd be writing about one of the people on the street, not the private cop who's running them off.
And then I read the story and my first impression was, OK, maybe not. Yes, the subject of the story is a private cop, but .. he's not a thug breaking heads (as far as we can tell here). He's kind of like a social worker. Saslow is using that as a device to illustrate the problem.
And then (!) I'm realizing, well, wait... this guy is not trained as a social worker. He probably has zero real training in de-esclation or working with the mentally ill. This is part of the problem, not a solution. And then for good measure, some editor (trust me, as a former reporter, you can always tell) stuffed in lines like the aforementioned one about defunding, and that quick, snide and deceptive reference to drug legalization.
So... I don't know what to think. Except that this piece felt rushed and over-edited (as in, too many cooks) and that they could have done better. Sigh.
posted by martin q blank at 8:53 AM on October 2, 2023 [38 favorites]
I saw the headline and lead-in and thought, oh, great, here goes the NY Times again, hyping a crime surge that doesn't exist, more rage-fodder for the right.
Then I clicked through and saw Eli Saslow's byline. For those who aren't journalism junkies: for a decade or so at the Washington Post, Saslow wrote a ton of brilliant stories, all of them basically about the less privileged people struggling against a stacked system. And I thought, oh, great, the NYT has co-opted the single best journalist writing about America. If this were him at the Post, he'd be writing about one of the people on the street, not the private cop who's running them off.
And then I read the story and my first impression was, OK, maybe not. Yes, the subject of the story is a private cop, but .. he's not a thug breaking heads (as far as we can tell here). He's kind of like a social worker. Saslow is using that as a device to illustrate the problem.
And then (!) I'm realizing, well, wait... this guy is not trained as a social worker. He probably has zero real training in de-esclation or working with the mentally ill. This is part of the problem, not a solution. And then for good measure, some editor (trust me, as a former reporter, you can always tell) stuffed in lines like the aforementioned one about defunding, and that quick, snide and deceptive reference to drug legalization.
So... I don't know what to think. Except that this piece felt rushed and over-edited (as in, too many cooks) and that they could have done better. Sigh.
posted by martin q blank at 8:53 AM on October 2, 2023 [38 favorites]
There's only so much despair that a person can handle, even with various legal (medication, various practices, alcohol) and illegal means (everything else). The symptoms of the rot in the social contract are also not directly tied to what's actually rotting the thing, so the onus is always on the individuals breaking and not higher up the social tree.
posted by Slackermagee at 9:00 AM on October 2, 2023 [6 favorites]
posted by Slackermagee at 9:00 AM on October 2, 2023 [6 favorites]
At least 50% of the Seattle Police budget is totally unrelated to patrols:
Plus about 7% of the budget is expected to go straight to overtime, and only a small fraction of that will likely be patrols. Here in Chicago what what actually happens is issuing a citation at the end of your shift and then hang out in the office to milk some sweet overtime.
posted by zenon at 9:01 AM on October 2, 2023 [2 favorites]
- 21% : administration
- 13.8% : special operations
- 15% : investigations
- 5.5% : parking
- 1% : oversight
Plus about 7% of the budget is expected to go straight to overtime, and only a small fraction of that will likely be patrols. Here in Chicago what what actually happens is issuing a citation at the end of your shift and then hang out in the office to milk some sweet overtime.
posted by zenon at 9:01 AM on October 2, 2023 [2 favorites]
The Private Security thing is also not just the realm of cities. The suburban condo association I'm now on the board of is discussing a new security contract. This condo was affordable because the crime rate is mildly elevated over the surrounding Montgomery County, MD background.
The option folks are gravitating towards is a $75/hour off duty cop. No data reported back, they just call on duty cops if they see anything, but they will have a badge and a gun which is what some of the board members want to hear. The other option is $25/hour, scan QR codes in the area to report what they see, we get weekly updates with time stamps and locations, and they won't directly intervene and will just call the cops if something actually comes up as above.
People want the feeling of safety from the (frankly useless in comparison) off duty cop even if we'd get actual data about when and where people were, say, prowling for unlocked cars from the other private security outfit. Addressing the disconnected symptoms like fear will do nothing (or worse than nothing if they elevate stress further). You can "address" one person but there will be another, and another, and another. It's just The Bad Times, and not even the middle of them as far as it looks.
posted by Slackermagee at 9:03 AM on October 2, 2023 [1 favorite]
The option folks are gravitating towards is a $75/hour off duty cop. No data reported back, they just call on duty cops if they see anything, but they will have a badge and a gun which is what some of the board members want to hear. The other option is $25/hour, scan QR codes in the area to report what they see, we get weekly updates with time stamps and locations, and they won't directly intervene and will just call the cops if something actually comes up as above.
People want the feeling of safety from the (frankly useless in comparison) off duty cop even if we'd get actual data about when and where people were, say, prowling for unlocked cars from the other private security outfit. Addressing the disconnected symptoms like fear will do nothing (or worse than nothing if they elevate stress further). You can "address" one person but there will be another, and another, and another. It's just The Bad Times, and not even the middle of them as far as it looks.
posted by Slackermagee at 9:03 AM on October 2, 2023 [1 favorite]
Thank you for posting, I think this is an interesting and important topic. I really don't like cops of any stripe but I can at least understand them in the context of needing to keep the peace and maintaining a state monopoly on violence; I don't think cops actually do keep the peace and I don't trust the state but those are theoretically fairly reasonable justifications. When non-state actors start having the same authority and responsibility and even less putative oversight that's really bad even if some individuals who are part of that system are nice people doing their best.
posted by an octopus IRL at 9:07 AM on October 2, 2023 [3 favorites]
posted by an octopus IRL at 9:07 AM on October 2, 2023 [3 favorites]
It's wild and confusing for me to feel even a hint of anti-union sentiment but I think a big part of the appeal of private security is the fact that they're accountable to the people who hired them and can be fired and replaced if they do a bad job. As opposed to actual police, who are apparently accountable to nobody most of the time. Sometimes what you really want from a policing situation is someone to fire if a bad thing happens, and since it's become very clear that there are situations in which no amount of public pressure will lead to the actual firing of a police officer, I can imagine why cities and companies are moving away from them as a solution to a number of public safety issues.
I am extremely pro union in basically every other case but my total antipathy for police unions helps me understand anti-union sentiment in general. We trust these people with so much, and years and years of abusing that trust has yielded this very predictable outcome. Of course given the choice between relying on overtly hostile city cops and hiring your own security force that actually gives a shit what you think about how they're doing, more and more security-hiring entities are going with the latter.
posted by potrzebie at 9:22 AM on October 2, 2023 [22 favorites]
I am extremely pro union in basically every other case but my total antipathy for police unions helps me understand anti-union sentiment in general. We trust these people with so much, and years and years of abusing that trust has yielded this very predictable outcome. Of course given the choice between relying on overtly hostile city cops and hiring your own security force that actually gives a shit what you think about how they're doing, more and more security-hiring entities are going with the latter.
posted by potrzebie at 9:22 AM on October 2, 2023 [22 favorites]
I think that's a really thoughtful comment form potrzebie and there are a couple of things I'd say in response:
1. Obviously coming at this with my personal bias but I think that the reason police unions are bad is because police are bad and not because unions are bad; if you don't think police should exist (at least in the form at which they currently do) that sort of solves the police union issue.
2. I understand your point about private security people having accountability in a way cops don't but one issue I have (besides the more abstract moral ones) is that they are accountable to their employers, not the public; if they trash homeless encampments and their employer thinks that's good they're not going to get fired even if everyone else is upset about it.
We're in a really bad situation regarding law enforcement and I don't know that there are good/easy answers but I think for a lot of reasons private security forces who are beholden to employers who might have very different priorities than everyone else is not a good solution.
posted by an octopus IRL at 9:32 AM on October 2, 2023 [12 favorites]
1. Obviously coming at this with my personal bias but I think that the reason police unions are bad is because police are bad and not because unions are bad; if you don't think police should exist (at least in the form at which they currently do) that sort of solves the police union issue.
2. I understand your point about private security people having accountability in a way cops don't but one issue I have (besides the more abstract moral ones) is that they are accountable to their employers, not the public; if they trash homeless encampments and their employer thinks that's good they're not going to get fired even if everyone else is upset about it.
We're in a really bad situation regarding law enforcement and I don't know that there are good/easy answers but I think for a lot of reasons private security forces who are beholden to employers who might have very different priorities than everyone else is not a good solution.
posted by an octopus IRL at 9:32 AM on October 2, 2023 [12 favorites]
The population of Seattle is what, 700k or so?
The article is about Portland, not Seattle.
posted by rhymedirective at 9:35 AM on October 2, 2023 [2 favorites]
The article is about Portland, not Seattle.
posted by rhymedirective at 9:35 AM on October 2, 2023 [2 favorites]
The Grey Area had a pretty superb podcast on “fixing policing” from a non-abolitionist frame (which, I disagree with, but is still more palatable to many in our society). One of the striking things I learned was that the United States is actually under-policed per capita than many other peer nations, far less educated (France was cited several times and you need a 4 year college degree to become a police officer) and our cops are far more violent. It’s a good listen, even if you are in the abolition camp. They acknowledge that reform is a likely a generational project at this point.
The fact that these security folks have less training not more training is a huuuuuge problem. These are just mercenaries. The people attracted to these jobs are never the people you want working these positions.
posted by furnace.heart at 9:46 AM on October 2, 2023 [14 favorites]
The fact that these security folks have less training not more training is a huuuuuge problem. These are just mercenaries. The people attracted to these jobs are never the people you want working these positions.
posted by furnace.heart at 9:46 AM on October 2, 2023 [14 favorites]
as a portlander, an article sympathetic to the private security here is a real mind-blower since they usually make the news for things like killing people with guns they're not certified to carry
posted by nixon's meatloaf at 9:56 AM on October 2, 2023 [13 favorites]
posted by nixon's meatloaf at 9:56 AM on October 2, 2023 [13 favorites]
I know a guy who works private security. (He mans a guard shack.) He's disabled, and it's about the only work that he can get. From what he's said, a lot of the people working security couldn't get work doing anything else.
That doesn't really inspire confidence.
posted by Spike Glee at 10:02 AM on October 2, 2023 [5 favorites]
That doesn't really inspire confidence.
posted by Spike Glee at 10:02 AM on October 2, 2023 [5 favorites]
So in a world without police would these people be allowed and who would enforce their absence? Would the distribution of resources between companies and regular people result in an explicit replication of the problems people have with the status quo?
posted by Selena777 at 10:09 AM on October 2, 2023 [2 favorites]
posted by Selena777 at 10:09 AM on October 2, 2023 [2 favorites]
I don't know about Portland, but in Minneapolis at least, conservatives and out of towners have this threshold for "downtown is a risky hellscape" which is basically "someone is panhandling" and people in general do not have good risk assessment for unfamiliar situations.
As a broad generality, the people who are at risk around encampments are unhoused people, and policing makes that risk worse. Walking by something and thinking "that looks kind of scary" is not the same as literally being at risk. The bare minimum for an adult should be a willingness to look at reality rather than just roll with vibes - you are in general not at risk from unhoused people. There are knock-on bad effects of encampments, like trash, noise and needles, but these are QOL problems, not risks. We could solve most of them by, eg, trash service and portapotties for encampments, or just by iterating until we have housing solutions, but we have chosen not to do that.
Because these are QOL problems, we should be willing to weigh the interests of our unhoused neighbors* equally with our own - should I have a right to a totally quiet, trash-free street if that means that we round up unhoused people, destroy their stuff and throw them in jail, or does the harm to unhoused people outweigh the benefit to me?
Encampments vary tremendously. Some are quiet, some are loud, some are basically safe, some are really not (for the people who live there). Some are self-organized and well-planned, like the Native healing camp in S MPLS.
Like, it is just horrible that people have to live outside. I hate it more than I thought I could hate anything of this general nature. But encampments are not themselves ipso facto risky to passers-by or intrinsically dirty and scary.
All this "we're hiring security" is partly just more cop grift and right-wing power grabs, but part of it is because many people have decided to relinquish their intellectual and emotional responsibilities and accept that if something seems weird or scary to them it is in fact actually dangerous.
*I hate this phrase, because it suggests that it is going to be normal for the forseeable future to have neighbors who have to live in tents. But it's the best one we've got for daily use, calling people "our local victims of racism and state and corporate violence" is isolating and alienating. "My neighbors are unhoused" should be a fucking three-alarm emergency but we've just decided to roll with it.
posted by Frowner at 10:13 AM on October 2, 2023 [24 favorites]
As a broad generality, the people who are at risk around encampments are unhoused people, and policing makes that risk worse. Walking by something and thinking "that looks kind of scary" is not the same as literally being at risk. The bare minimum for an adult should be a willingness to look at reality rather than just roll with vibes - you are in general not at risk from unhoused people. There are knock-on bad effects of encampments, like trash, noise and needles, but these are QOL problems, not risks. We could solve most of them by, eg, trash service and portapotties for encampments, or just by iterating until we have housing solutions, but we have chosen not to do that.
Because these are QOL problems, we should be willing to weigh the interests of our unhoused neighbors* equally with our own - should I have a right to a totally quiet, trash-free street if that means that we round up unhoused people, destroy their stuff and throw them in jail, or does the harm to unhoused people outweigh the benefit to me?
Encampments vary tremendously. Some are quiet, some are loud, some are basically safe, some are really not (for the people who live there). Some are self-organized and well-planned, like the Native healing camp in S MPLS.
Like, it is just horrible that people have to live outside. I hate it more than I thought I could hate anything of this general nature. But encampments are not themselves ipso facto risky to passers-by or intrinsically dirty and scary.
All this "we're hiring security" is partly just more cop grift and right-wing power grabs, but part of it is because many people have decided to relinquish their intellectual and emotional responsibilities and accept that if something seems weird or scary to them it is in fact actually dangerous.
*I hate this phrase, because it suggests that it is going to be normal for the forseeable future to have neighbors who have to live in tents. But it's the best one we've got for daily use, calling people "our local victims of racism and state and corporate violence" is isolating and alienating. "My neighbors are unhoused" should be a fucking three-alarm emergency but we've just decided to roll with it.
posted by Frowner at 10:13 AM on October 2, 2023 [24 favorites]
> As bad as policing is in the USA, is there any body capable of acting as a temporary custodian of public safety while new professional police (something we don't have in the USA) is trained up and sworn in?
firefighters firefighters firefighters firefighters.
fire departments can't take over everything, but they're large public organizations that (unlike the police) have an interest in serving and protecting.
posted by bombastic lowercase pronouncements at 10:13 AM on October 2, 2023 [4 favorites]
firefighters firefighters firefighters firefighters.
fire departments can't take over everything, but they're large public organizations that (unlike the police) have an interest in serving and protecting.
posted by bombastic lowercase pronouncements at 10:13 AM on October 2, 2023 [4 favorites]
I know folks who are security guards, and I've even been one for a short time (sucks but sometimes you take the work you can get). Most security people do what the boss says, and try to get through their shift as quietly as possible. There's the occasional tough guy thin blue line jackass, but they're the exception, not the rule. If we're counting on security guards to save the world, then we are well and truly fucked.
posted by evilDoug at 10:16 AM on October 2, 2023
posted by evilDoug at 10:16 AM on October 2, 2023
i feel like we need to draw a distinction between "security guard" and "club / business private security, basically an extremely armed bouncer" when talking about this stuff as well - there is a difference between sitting in your car or a guard shack and occasionally patrolling some kind of desolate industrial area or closed jobsite, parking garage whatever, and this thing that feels pretty new to me as a US-ian -- super armed dude with a bunch of MOLLE gear in the convenience store or the club or whatever, generally with a kind of dire vibe to come with it. i really hate it. it feels like another symptom of the social contract breaking.
posted by nixon's meatloaf at 10:37 AM on October 2, 2023 [6 favorites]
posted by nixon's meatloaf at 10:37 AM on October 2, 2023 [6 favorites]
I am extremely pro union in basically every other case but my total antipathy for police unions helps me understand anti-union sentiment in general.
Police have consistently been violent, aggressive enemies of labor for over a century and the conflation of their organized crime syndicates with real unions should be ended immediately.
posted by Pope Guilty at 10:50 AM on October 2, 2023 [15 favorites]
Police have consistently been violent, aggressive enemies of labor for over a century and the conflation of their organized crime syndicates with real unions should be ended immediately.
posted by Pope Guilty at 10:50 AM on October 2, 2023 [15 favorites]
oh also here's a thread from a local activist calling bullshit pretty extensively on this article
posted by nixon's meatloaf at 10:55 AM on October 2, 2023 [17 favorites]
posted by nixon's meatloaf at 10:55 AM on October 2, 2023 [17 favorites]
Are we able to see the whole thing without X accounts?
posted by Selena777 at 11:05 AM on October 2, 2023 [3 favorites]
posted by Selena777 at 11:05 AM on October 2, 2023 [3 favorites]
Are we able to see the whole thing without X accounts?
Ever since I ditched my Twitter account, I use a Firefox extension that automatically redirects Twitter/X links to the open-source front-end Nitter, which allows me to read the content without dealing with Elon's bullshit.
Here's the Nitter link that is produced when I click on the link with the extension enabled: https://nitter.net/davidminpdx/status/1708500733832905201
posted by Strange Interlude at 11:15 AM on October 2, 2023 [9 favorites]
Ever since I ditched my Twitter account, I use a Firefox extension that automatically redirects Twitter/X links to the open-source front-end Nitter, which allows me to read the content without dealing with Elon's bullshit.
Here's the Nitter link that is produced when I click on the link with the extension enabled: https://nitter.net/davidminpdx/status/1708500733832905201
posted by Strange Interlude at 11:15 AM on October 2, 2023 [9 favorites]
From that linked Twitter/Nitter/whatever thread (thanks, Strange Interlude!):
posted by martin q blank at 11:43 AM on October 2, 2023 [8 favorites]
But somehow despite many 1000s of words, the piece neglects to mention Portland Street Response, the public, highly successful, but wildly underfunded non-police first responder unit that is designed to address precisely these problems.In the old days, that's the group that Saslow would have embedded himself with. He used to spend weeks with the subjects of his stories. This one, it feels like he spent precisely the length of the ride-along shifts and not a minute more. Again, sigh.
posted by martin q blank at 11:43 AM on October 2, 2023 [8 favorites]
thank you nixon's meatloaf -- I felt like I was reading something from a different city after they failed to mention PSR -- like, why didn't they even get a call?
posted by PikeMatchbox at 11:56 AM on October 2, 2023 [4 favorites]
posted by PikeMatchbox at 11:56 AM on October 2, 2023 [4 favorites]
The great blatant scam of modern American conservatism is that, having long externalized the negatives of economic exploitation, racism, ableism, housing, healthcare, family welfare nets, community destruction, and social alienation down to the most vulnerable people, you can now point to these very people who have been ground to squalor and desperation under this boot and say, hey, these homeless people are the problem - in fact we shouldn't even call them people, they are subhuman detritus who are inherently irrepairable - and the fact that they exist is both inevitable and also somehow a refutation of the small recent progressive baby steps to help them, not our untrammeled greed and apathy and four decades of Reaganomics and Reaganesque social policy.
The same businesses and landlords that hire these private security guards fight tooth and nail to cut taxes, get rid of public infrastructure, scrap eviction moratoriums, smear progressive policymakers, close down homeless shelters, restrict access to methadone and buprenorphine.
Every outcome is reversed as to point to the exact opposite of its cause. Housing-first will attract more homelessness! Safe consumption sites will cause more needles! Public toilets will cause public defecation! Narcan will cause more overdoses! Police will deescalate!
The lies are so blatant, yet somehow if you repeat them enough, people start to buy them. A person stepping in human poop can be easily convinced to blame a destitute person for the inevitable biological act of pooping rather than the absolute absence of public toilets. A person seeing tents in the park blames people for camping, not the fact that this is the closest thing to safe housing that the inhabitant was able to attain. A person who paid for their own house insists that giving someone housing for free is just going to spoil them, and that you have to cure addiction and mental illness in order to deserve to come indoors.
Meanwhile, progressives are always caught on the back foot, insisting for example that Seattle(*) is not dying when in fact people are literally dying out there in the cold and wet everyday, sick in mind and body. It is happening, and it is a tragedy. But it's not one created by progressive policy, it is exactly the opposite.
(*) I'm aware that the article is about Portland not Seattle, but these issues are common to all of these major cities, and "Seattle Is Dying" was an actual propaganda film made by Sinclair Media.
posted by splitpeasoup at 12:36 PM on October 2, 2023 [22 favorites]
The same businesses and landlords that hire these private security guards fight tooth and nail to cut taxes, get rid of public infrastructure, scrap eviction moratoriums, smear progressive policymakers, close down homeless shelters, restrict access to methadone and buprenorphine.
Every outcome is reversed as to point to the exact opposite of its cause. Housing-first will attract more homelessness! Safe consumption sites will cause more needles! Public toilets will cause public defecation! Narcan will cause more overdoses! Police will deescalate!
The lies are so blatant, yet somehow if you repeat them enough, people start to buy them. A person stepping in human poop can be easily convinced to blame a destitute person for the inevitable biological act of pooping rather than the absolute absence of public toilets. A person seeing tents in the park blames people for camping, not the fact that this is the closest thing to safe housing that the inhabitant was able to attain. A person who paid for their own house insists that giving someone housing for free is just going to spoil them, and that you have to cure addiction and mental illness in order to deserve to come indoors.
Meanwhile, progressives are always caught on the back foot, insisting for example that Seattle(*) is not dying when in fact people are literally dying out there in the cold and wet everyday, sick in mind and body. It is happening, and it is a tragedy. But it's not one created by progressive policy, it is exactly the opposite.
(*) I'm aware that the article is about Portland not Seattle, but these issues are common to all of these major cities, and "Seattle Is Dying" was an actual propaganda film made by Sinclair Media.
posted by splitpeasoup at 12:36 PM on October 2, 2023 [22 favorites]
I was reading the article and the thought drifted across my mind that "at least this guy isn't trying to be a Pinkerton." And that reminded me that I keep feeling that this is another gilded age, so of course we have private troops hired to roust the rabble.
This guy may not be trying to be a Pinkerton, but I bet a lot of the originals didn't think they were either.
posted by Vigilant at 12:53 PM on October 2, 2023 [2 favorites]
This guy may not be trying to be a Pinkerton, but I bet a lot of the originals didn't think they were either.
posted by Vigilant at 12:53 PM on October 2, 2023 [2 favorites]
nixon's meatloaf: thanks for that link. I was certain somebody was out there having that conversation, and time was I could just go on Twitter and find it for myself without having to wade through a lot of fash bullshit.
I keep thinking about Jade. Her shaved head made me think of Sinead O'Connor, of how likely it was that Sinead would have lived a life like that in America. Jade needed a lot that day that she didn't get, but she didn't need to go to jail. And not to be all "what about the rights of that little girl," but I cannot imagine that boy or his family will feel any safer soon. Because of this article, that feeling will be contagious. This was such an irresponsible way to tell this story.
posted by Countess Elena at 1:04 PM on October 2, 2023 [2 favorites]
I keep thinking about Jade. Her shaved head made me think of Sinead O'Connor, of how likely it was that Sinead would have lived a life like that in America. Jade needed a lot that day that she didn't get, but she didn't need to go to jail. And not to be all "what about the rights of that little girl," but I cannot imagine that boy or his family will feel any safer soon. Because of this article, that feeling will be contagious. This was such an irresponsible way to tell this story.
posted by Countess Elena at 1:04 PM on October 2, 2023 [2 favorites]
thought drifted across my mind that "at least this guy isn't trying to be a Pinkerton."
I mean, it looks like at least some of his company's staff are ex-Securitas, which is the current parent company of Pinkerton. (at least based on quick Googling)
Securitas/Pinkerton/Protectas is still alive & well, & runs a *lot* of private security in the US (whether direct or through subsidiaries). Looking it up, they currently have 121k employees in North America.
Echelon's CEO is fairly active on LinkedIn about "Direct Action AI Analytics" / "AI Predictive analytics" as the future of private security, much in line with Pinkerton's interest in Security-as-a-Service as a future growth model (better margins when you can upsell tech capabilities, vs. the limited scaling potential of boots-on-the-ground).
posted by CrystalDave at 1:35 PM on October 2, 2023 [4 favorites]
I mean, it looks like at least some of his company's staff are ex-Securitas, which is the current parent company of Pinkerton. (at least based on quick Googling)
Securitas/Pinkerton/Protectas is still alive & well, & runs a *lot* of private security in the US (whether direct or through subsidiaries). Looking it up, they currently have 121k employees in North America.
Echelon's CEO is fairly active on LinkedIn about "Direct Action AI Analytics" / "AI Predictive analytics" as the future of private security, much in line with Pinkerton's interest in Security-as-a-Service as a future growth model (better margins when you can upsell tech capabilities, vs. the limited scaling potential of boots-on-the-ground).
posted by CrystalDave at 1:35 PM on October 2, 2023 [4 favorites]
Like many things these days, the topic of private security guards is one that leaves me with mixed feelings, and not really sure where I stand on the issue.
I've been thinking about it a lot recently, because the small town in Vermont where I grew up and spent a lot more time in this summer is doing this. The town only has a population of 12,000 but in recent years has had a surge in illegal activity (break ins, drug arrests, robberies) and "quality of life" issues specifically in its downtown area (public urination, drug use, panhandling.)
From 2021 to 2022, assaults were up 15%, sexual crimes up 26% and burglaries were up nearly 50% (from 59 to 108). Last Spring there was a carjacking at knifepoint on a Sunday afternoon at a parking garage in the center of downtown and this incident seems to have been the catalyst for action.
Due to understaffing of the police department, the town voted to hire two separate private security firms who use unarmed details to patrol the "problem areas", the cost will be $4000 per week (or $37/hr). Base pay for a town patrol officer is $50k/yr.
The town seems to be approaching this in about as good a way as can be expected, in addition to being unarmed, these security details are going to be trained in de-escalation techniques with the objective of non-confrontation: when they see an incident they are supposed to contact the police.
I can't help but wonder though: whatever happened to the "beat cop"? You know, the neighborhood police officer who walked the streets and knew the community and people's names. Is this not a thing anymore? Among other things, it strikes me that even those private guards with the best intentions are no replacement for that sort of community engagement.
At their worst, private security firms feel very mercenary, and who are the people who decide that's a business to get into? Case in point: one week after they hired him, when the owner was asked in an interview what the effect of security presence was in general, he said "It’s like cockroaches running away when you turn the light on...” This did not go over well and he was then fired.
posted by jeremias at 1:36 PM on October 2, 2023 [3 favorites]
I've been thinking about it a lot recently, because the small town in Vermont where I grew up and spent a lot more time in this summer is doing this. The town only has a population of 12,000 but in recent years has had a surge in illegal activity (break ins, drug arrests, robberies) and "quality of life" issues specifically in its downtown area (public urination, drug use, panhandling.)
From 2021 to 2022, assaults were up 15%, sexual crimes up 26% and burglaries were up nearly 50% (from 59 to 108). Last Spring there was a carjacking at knifepoint on a Sunday afternoon at a parking garage in the center of downtown and this incident seems to have been the catalyst for action.
Due to understaffing of the police department, the town voted to hire two separate private security firms who use unarmed details to patrol the "problem areas", the cost will be $4000 per week (or $37/hr). Base pay for a town patrol officer is $50k/yr.
The town seems to be approaching this in about as good a way as can be expected, in addition to being unarmed, these security details are going to be trained in de-escalation techniques with the objective of non-confrontation: when they see an incident they are supposed to contact the police.
I can't help but wonder though: whatever happened to the "beat cop"? You know, the neighborhood police officer who walked the streets and knew the community and people's names. Is this not a thing anymore? Among other things, it strikes me that even those private guards with the best intentions are no replacement for that sort of community engagement.
At their worst, private security firms feel very mercenary, and who are the people who decide that's a business to get into? Case in point: one week after they hired him, when the owner was asked in an interview what the effect of security presence was in general, he said "It’s like cockroaches running away when you turn the light on...” This did not go over well and he was then fired.
posted by jeremias at 1:36 PM on October 2, 2023 [3 favorites]
I firmly believe we are going to get back to institutionalization as a solution to these problems. Privatized, at great expense, abstinence as a goal. It'll be more expensive than the solutions we're too cheap to pay for now but it'll scratch that punitive itch that social housing and free healthcare don't.
posted by monkeymike at 2:22 PM on October 2, 2023 [2 favorites]
posted by monkeymike at 2:22 PM on October 2, 2023 [2 favorites]
Is that what we're going to do with the substance abuse as illness model?
posted by Selena777 at 2:42 PM on October 2, 2023
posted by Selena777 at 2:42 PM on October 2, 2023
Reading this a few times, it doesn’t seem clear that Bock made anyone’s lives better in the situation with the woman harassing the mom and kid?
The family hung around for a bit and lost more of their day, probably frightening the kid more, and the lady got chased through the city to nobody’s benefit, further agitating her and possibly endangering more people. The cops came and did nothing.
Like, this is kind of the reason his previous job didn’t want him chasing people?
posted by smelendez at 3:27 PM on October 2, 2023 [2 favorites]
The family hung around for a bit and lost more of their day, probably frightening the kid more, and the lady got chased through the city to nobody’s benefit, further agitating her and possibly endangering more people. The cops came and did nothing.
Like, this is kind of the reason his previous job didn’t want him chasing people?
posted by smelendez at 3:27 PM on October 2, 2023 [2 favorites]
As bad as policing is in the USA, is there any body capable of acting as a temporary custodian of public safety while new professional police (something we don't have in the USA) is trained up and sworn in?
I was going to say EMTs
Like, create a training pathway after EMT Basic that can branch into security and investigation. So many calls are health problems anyhow. There s just a much better culture and basic respect for life.
Also a disdain for life when burnout sets in yes but it s so much less horrid than cop burnout
You don't have to send out the EMT -security team for most calls
And EMTs need to be paid so much more, given more respect
By no means a perfect solution but one way to stop feeding the cancer that is US policing
posted by eustatic at 3:57 PM on October 2, 2023 [12 favorites]
I was going to say EMTs
Like, create a training pathway after EMT Basic that can branch into security and investigation. So many calls are health problems anyhow. There s just a much better culture and basic respect for life.
Also a disdain for life when burnout sets in yes but it s so much less horrid than cop burnout
You don't have to send out the EMT -security team for most calls
And EMTs need to be paid so much more, given more respect
By no means a perfect solution but one way to stop feeding the cancer that is US policing
posted by eustatic at 3:57 PM on October 2, 2023 [12 favorites]
I saw a Vice program on Detroit a couple months back. (I'm only realizing now that I'm going back to it to link it that it actually was from 2016.) They talk to a guy who is the "commander" of a private police force called the V.I.P.E.R.S. While on his patrol boat in the Detroit River, he tells the reporter he's going to get helicopters Real Soon Now. I don't think he ever expanded to the level he talks about in that interview. Seeing this when I did over the summer made me realize that the "tactical" mindset is so bad for people, but so many people are lost to it. It's the "Dark Forest" hypothesis made manifest.
posted by ob1quixote at 7:20 PM on October 2, 2023 [2 favorites]
posted by ob1quixote at 7:20 PM on October 2, 2023 [2 favorites]
> can't help but wonder though: whatever happened to the "beat cop"? You know, the neighborhood police officer who walked the streets and knew the community and people's names
yes having cops roam the neighborhood is a great idea i love it yes 100% would love to see a fucking cop walk up my street on fucking foot asking me my fucking name that sounds like loads of great times for everyone yes that sounds delightful
posted by bombastic lowercase pronouncements at 9:50 PM on October 2, 2023 [1 favorite]
yes having cops roam the neighborhood is a great idea i love it yes 100% would love to see a fucking cop walk up my street on fucking foot asking me my fucking name that sounds like loads of great times for everyone yes that sounds delightful
posted by bombastic lowercase pronouncements at 9:50 PM on October 2, 2023 [1 favorite]
> can't help but wonder though: whatever happened to the "beat cop"?
Community Policing
I mean, there's a reason why Quis custodiet ipsos custodes? has always been considered a hard problem.
posted by Reasonably Everything Happens at 2:40 AM on October 3, 2023 [1 favorite]
Community Policing
I mean, there's a reason why Quis custodiet ipsos custodes? has always been considered a hard problem.
posted by Reasonably Everything Happens at 2:40 AM on October 3, 2023 [1 favorite]
can't help but wonder though: whatever happened to the "beat cop"?
Suburbanization - when the beat cop idea was popular (1920- 1960), the population density of the US was basically at its max across most of the US. It continually fell thoughout the '80s, and now is slowly inching its way back up. Now houses and stuff are too far apart for cops to walk districts - they mostly drive them.
posted by The_Vegetables at 9:44 AM on October 3, 2023 [1 favorite]
Suburbanization - when the beat cop idea was popular (1920- 1960), the population density of the US was basically at its max across most of the US. It continually fell thoughout the '80s, and now is slowly inching its way back up. Now houses and stuff are too far apart for cops to walk districts - they mostly drive them.
posted by The_Vegetables at 9:44 AM on October 3, 2023 [1 favorite]
also, though, and i cannot stress this enough, it's fucking horrifying even just thinking about fucking cops roaming the neighborhood on foot. it's bad enough that they're driving around in cars.
posted by bombastic lowercase pronouncements at 12:19 PM on October 3, 2023
posted by bombastic lowercase pronouncements at 12:19 PM on October 3, 2023
“Harsha Walia Talks About GardaWorld, Migrant Camps and Chicago,” Kelly Hayes, Organizing My Thoughts, 03 October 2023
There is an ongoing controversy in Chicago around the city’s decision to commit to a $30 million contract with GardaWorld, a security company widely known as the “Blackwater of Canada.” GardaWorld has received heavy criticism for human rights abuses at a tented migrant shelter at Fort Bliss in El Paso, Texas, where reports of child rape, lice, uncooked food, inadequate protection from the elements, and other harmful conditions have been well documented. According to El Paso Matters, whistleblowers Laurie Elkin and Justin Mulaire reported that “there were significant problems when they tried to report on incidents that caused harm to the children at the facility. They described widespread indifference among staff and supervisors toward children in medical distress and active discouragement from helping children seek medical care.”posted by ob1quixote at 9:46 AM on October 4, 2023
Portland has had dire issues related to homelessness for a very long time, and none of the mayors in recent memory have figured out a solution despite multitudes of promises. The solution to these issues is not private security. This article is interesting because it shows what a depressing situation the city currently has. Our current mayor, who somehow survived a recall after a torrential mayorship, has decided to build up actual camps, allegedly to be stocked by private security, but has no plans to expand drug treatment for our population.
Dave Minschel (posted above) who I do typically like, is correct about certain criminal statistics, but I think he is wrong about some things. First of all, I wonder how the crime statistics are actually calibrated. If the police never show up and take a report, does that not get counted? This has been an issue not only here in Portland but in another boogeyman city: San Francisco. The police don’t even do their jobs. Secondly, seeing mass amounts of people smoking fentanyl downtown likewise does not count as a crime even if it is technically illegal. I can and do sympathize heavily for the homeless population and people who are substance abusers. They need help. But it is disingenuous to merely put down statistics and not keep in mind peoples lived realities. Downtown has had a marked difference in “feeling” over the past few years. I have been assaulted at work twice by random people who were high on drugs. One of those times could have been a life altering injury for me. I have been on the MAX and seen women with their kids scared as men have punched windows and gotten in their faces and called them every sexist name in the book while we wait for TriMet security to respond, with people wondering whether these men are going to attack us while we try to deescalate. There have been random attacks. In fact, there was just a fairly serious stabbing on the train just a few weeks ago in which a black teenager was stabbed and nearly killed. Now, I think we need a solid, humane focused solution to the homelessness and rampant drug addiction that is plaguing our city, because a lot of people simply do not feel safe even if technically the statistics say that crime is down. But when I see people who are very threatening, screaming racial slurs or sexist slurs, my thoughts aren’t “well, statistically I’m probably not going to be killed”, my thoughts are “I am scared”. So for me, I find Dave Minschel’s (and other people in the city) a bit disingenuous, even though I do agree with his assertions in general. But a lot of people downtown have noticed a very stark difference to how it was even just a couple of years ago, pre-COVID. It’s a sad state of affairs, and everyone deserves to have a nice city and a comfortable life without the threat of private security or cops potentially making things a disaster. The police and private security do not have a solid benchmark when it comes to dealing with homeless people. It wasn’t that long ago that Portland police shot a man at a city park, let him bleed to death without trying to help, while they had a pizza party over his body. This is not a joke, this is something that actually happen. The man’s crime? Walking around with a BB gun.
posted by gucci mane at 5:27 PM on October 8, 2023
Dave Minschel (posted above) who I do typically like, is correct about certain criminal statistics, but I think he is wrong about some things. First of all, I wonder how the crime statistics are actually calibrated. If the police never show up and take a report, does that not get counted? This has been an issue not only here in Portland but in another boogeyman city: San Francisco. The police don’t even do their jobs. Secondly, seeing mass amounts of people smoking fentanyl downtown likewise does not count as a crime even if it is technically illegal. I can and do sympathize heavily for the homeless population and people who are substance abusers. They need help. But it is disingenuous to merely put down statistics and not keep in mind peoples lived realities. Downtown has had a marked difference in “feeling” over the past few years. I have been assaulted at work twice by random people who were high on drugs. One of those times could have been a life altering injury for me. I have been on the MAX and seen women with their kids scared as men have punched windows and gotten in their faces and called them every sexist name in the book while we wait for TriMet security to respond, with people wondering whether these men are going to attack us while we try to deescalate. There have been random attacks. In fact, there was just a fairly serious stabbing on the train just a few weeks ago in which a black teenager was stabbed and nearly killed. Now, I think we need a solid, humane focused solution to the homelessness and rampant drug addiction that is plaguing our city, because a lot of people simply do not feel safe even if technically the statistics say that crime is down. But when I see people who are very threatening, screaming racial slurs or sexist slurs, my thoughts aren’t “well, statistically I’m probably not going to be killed”, my thoughts are “I am scared”. So for me, I find Dave Minschel’s (and other people in the city) a bit disingenuous, even though I do agree with his assertions in general. But a lot of people downtown have noticed a very stark difference to how it was even just a couple of years ago, pre-COVID. It’s a sad state of affairs, and everyone deserves to have a nice city and a comfortable life without the threat of private security or cops potentially making things a disaster. The police and private security do not have a solid benchmark when it comes to dealing with homeless people. It wasn’t that long ago that Portland police shot a man at a city park, let him bleed to death without trying to help, while they had a pizza party over his body. This is not a joke, this is something that actually happen. The man’s crime? Walking around with a BB gun.
posted by gucci mane at 5:27 PM on October 8, 2023
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posted by splitpeasoup at 7:53 AM on October 2, 2023