To understand what’s wrong with the US criminal justice system, follow the money

From Mark Perry.

"That’s the main lesson we learn from Georgetown Professor Jason Brennan’s MarketWatch op-ed “Remove SWAT teams from small towns and 5 more ways Americans can stop rewarding bad policing.” Here’s a shortened version:

What matters even more than black and white is green. Fixing our criminal justice system means fixing the incentives.

Our current crisis stems in part from the 1981 Military Cooperation with Law Enforcement Act, which authorized and incentivized the U.S. armed forces to train police in military tactics. The 1990 National Defense Authorization Act authorized the military to donate excess military equipment — armored vehicles, grenade launchers, M16s, helicopters and weaponized vehicles — to local law enforcement. Police departments received federal and other subsidies for accepting and deploying military equipment. At least $5.1 billion in military equipment has been transferred since 1997.
As a result, more than 80% of small U.S. towns (with 20,000 to 25,000 residents) now have a SWAT team. In 1981, the U.S. deployed SWAT teams about 3000 times total in response to hostage and active shooter scenarios, or an average of 8 times a day; last year, they deployed SWAT raids about 100 times a day, mostly for drug warrants.

The War on Drugs also licensed police departments to seize cash and property on mere suspicion that they might be connected to drug trafficking. Innocent victims almost never win back their money. The Justice Department’s “equitable sharing program” ensures much of the seized money — $657 million in 2013 alone — enhances police and other local government budgets. In 2015, the Obama administration curbed some of these practices, but still permit the majority of seizures, which come from local police activity and seizures from joint tasks forces. Unfortunately, most states do not disclose the total amounts seized under these laws.

We authorize and pay police to steal from us for their own benefit. Police in Tehana, Texas, stole $3 million from innocent minority drivers between 2006 and 2008, until an ACLU lawsuit ended the practice.

Politicians happily enable this behavior. We voters reward politicians for being tough on crime, even when “tough on crime” in turn creates more crime. Although violent and non-violent crime have dropped greatly since 1994, surveys show voters continued to believe crime is increasing.

Even if we magically erased all racism overnight, the U.S. would still be harsh and violent. Instead, we must stop making bad policing pay.

Here are just six ways we can alter the financial incentives; there are other options as well, but the logic of these is relatively easy to see.

• Repeal civil asset forfeiture laws.
• Disband SWAT teams in any town smaller than 100,000 people.
• Don’t allow towns to keep revenue from tickets and fines; instead place that revenue in victim restitution funds.
• Remove laws immunizing police from civil and criminal penalties.
• Enable citizens to sue police for excessive or inappropriate violence; pay resulting judgments from police pension funds or salary pools, rather than general taxes.
• Make police salary raise pools dependent upon measured community satisfaction.
Bottom Line: If we change the incentives, we change behavior."