Читать книгу Police in America - Steven G. Brandl - Страница 92

A monopoly is a company or agency that does not have competitors, as there are no other providers of the same services or product in a particular jurisdiction or area. With a monopoly, customers have only two options: to use the services of that agency or company or do without the product. A monopoly does not compete for clients or customers, and it has the ability to raise the cost of services without much concern about demand for those services. In the private sector, regulators are not fond of monopolies and, as a result, there are not many of them. Consider the opposite of a monopolistic industry: restaurants. In most places, there are a plethora of restaurants that customers can select to patronize. If a restaurant provides poor service, has unreasonable prices, and/or serves food that is not well liked, chances are that restaurant will eventually go out of business.

monopoly: A company or agency that does not have competitors.

On the other hand, consider police departments. Normally, the police department that has jurisdiction over a community is the only police department that is available to citizens. If you live in Detroit and need the assistance of the police but you do not like the quality of service provided by the Detroit Police Department (DPD), you do not have any other options. You will need to call the DPD or call no police department at all. Therefore, the DPD needs not spend much time worrying about going out of business. If citizens did not report crimes to the police because of the perceived ineffectiveness of the police, the amount of reported crime would decrease. The irony is that a decrease in reported crime could be presented as evidence of a more effective police department!

However, it is important that this point not be overstated: Even though a department may be a monopoly, citizens can still demonstrate their dissatisfaction with the police. In extreme instances citizens can protest or riot in order to call attention to a poorly performing police department. And police departments are accountable to elected officials who have the power to change leadership in those departments. Also, in some instances the federal government—particularly the U.S. Department of Justice—has the authority to investigate the practices and policies of police departments and legally mandate changes in how they operate. So, while police departments are monopolies and are thus somewhat insulated from the demands and dissatisfaction of citizens, they are still accountable to citizens through the political process.