COIN comes home to assist policing

[MikeF]

I would suggest exploring the economic costs of raiding and imprisonment. Below is one cost-prison in the state of Massachusetts.


The Cost to Taxpayers

Overcrowding

• MA prisons are at over 140% of their capacity, with many operating at more than 200% of their intended capacity, and some over 300%.
  
• As of March 2011, there were 11,388 inmates in 18 facilities managed by the Department of Corrections. That number is projected to grow 26% — to almost 14,000 – by 2019.
  
• Parole rates in MA have dropped dramatically, from 58% in 2010 to 35% in 2011.

The Cost to Taxpayers

• It costs about $46,000 a year to house just one inmate in MA, 56% more than the national average.
  
• In 2010, MA spent $514.2 million on prisons, up from $408.6 million in 2001.
  
• Inmates are far more expensive than parolees and those on probation. In 2008, prisons cost an average of $79 per inmate per day, while it costs only $3 to $8 per individual per day to administer parole or probation services.
  
• Massachusetts spends nearly $100 million a year on prisoner health care, nearly double the cost from 2001.

[Fuchs]

A complete study would add the opportunity costs - such as people not working in a real job, not paying taxes.

The same should always be kept in mind regarding military personnel, too.

[Bill Moore]

Posted by MikeF,

I would suggest exploring the economic costs of raiding and imprisonment. Below is one cost-prison in the state of Massachusetts.

Our approach to law enforcement is expensive, but I'm not sure there is a realistic way around this. The article you linked to referenced drug rehab (always good to try, but we haven't experienced much success yet, which makes me wonder if we continue to pursue old drug rehab programs that have record of limited success instead of trying another approach?) and encouraging early parole. It also argued for removing he mandatory sentence times for drug use, which I strongly support. Politicians have in effect took on the role of the Judge and Jury by mandating a minimal sentence for specific crimes (politically popular), instead of allowing the jury and judge to assess the total person and the overall context of the alleged violation, and then determine an appropriate punishment instead of X=Y.

On the other hand, what the article didn't address is the potential impact of not arresting the growing number of gang members. Failure to enforce the law and for the government to protect the population from criminals has its own costs. If you take a position you can always spin the numbers to support it, so we all need to take a step back and look at the problem in a more holistic manner in my opinion.

[MikeF]

Our approach to law enforcement is expensive, but I'm not sure there is a realistic way around this.

At some point, our law enforcement efforts will become too expensive, and we're going to have to ask if we willing to lose our civil liberties when drones are flying over the skies and we're using social network analysis to map out the human terrain- which goes against our constitution.

It also argued for removing he mandatory sentence times for drug use, which I strongly support. Politicians have in effect took on the role of the Judge and Jury by mandating a minimal sentence for specific crimes (politically popular), instead of allowing the jury and judge to assess the total person and the overall context of the alleged violation, and then determine an appropriate punishment instead of X=Y.

Concur. We need to empower local leaders. The bureaucracy is not the answer.

On the other hand, what the article didn't address is the potential impact of not arresting the growing number of gang members. Failure to enforce the law and for the government to protect the population from criminals has its own costs. If you take a position you can always spin the numbers to support it, so we all need to take a step back and look at the problem in a more holistic manner in my opinion.

For a holistic manner, I would submit that it's not simply a police or governance problem. Rather, it's a community problem.

If the police are taking ownership to "fix" it, then that decision absolves the local leaders, families, churches, NGOs, etc from having to step up and be good citizens.

It's similar to some parents who drop their kids off at school expecting the teachers to have sole responsibility for educating their child. They outsource their responsibilities and do not take the time to work with their children on homework and during the summer.

[Bob's World]

What we enforce is a fuzzy thing in the best of times. In less than a year of county budget crunch, we went from charging drug residue in a simple glass tube crack/meth pipe as a felony possession, to a misdemeanor, to a mere violation. Such is politics.

Can we afford our current war on drugs, with indirect costs that far exceed the extremely high direct costs? I don't think so. We can come up with smarter policies to mitigate the down side of legalized drugs that will be well funded by the legal revenues from the sale and taxation of the same.

Morality is shaped by what we can afford to feel indignant about.

[socal1200r]

Watched a very interesting movie last night, called "Bloody Sunday", directed by Paul Greengrass from 2002. It's about the killings of numerous unarmed Irish civil rights protestors by British army troops on Jan 30, 1972. Now I can't tell if it's entirely objective, but it does raise some very interesting points, that are still applicable today, maybe even more so.

The most obvious one is the military is not trained for the law enforcement mission. They can secure an area for the police-types to come in and do what they're trained for, but the military, for the most part, should not be charged with doing what is primarily a law enforcement mission (rounding up suspects, effecting arrests, searches and seizures, etc). In this movie, some members of 1 Para are so keyed up, they don't view these protestors as fellow citizens, but as hooligans who are responsible for the deaths of fellow troops, and are bent on revenge.

Another obvious paradigm that is clearly shown is, "the best laid plan never survives initial contact with the enemy." There's a scene where the staff shows some higher-level officer the placement of their troops, the route of march of the protestors, what they anticipate the protestors actions will be, what their reactions will be, etc. Although it may have looked great on the wall in the command post, once events started to unfold, it quickly got out of hand.

Some other TTPs that came into play are unity of command, maintaining good SA and discipline, and good comms. A lot has been mentioned about the Brits' experience with the "Troubles" in Northern Ireland, as a good source of lessons learned regarding COIN, strategic comms, etc. There's a scene at the end, where the member of Parliament who was the main organizer makes a statement that the British govt has just handed the IRA their biggest victory. This is a great example of the superior force losing the battle of the narrative.

All in all, a very well done movie, with lots of good discussion points relevant to today's operational environment.

[davidbfpo]

The title of a 'Wired' article on an issue that lingers around and irregularly returns, as seen in:http://council.smallwarsjournal.com/...ad.php?t=15971

The article has information I'd not seen before on the scale of this largesse, if not greed:

the Fairmount Police Department. It serves 7,000 people in northern Georgia and received 17,145 items from the military. The cops in Issaquah, Washington, a town of 30,000 people, acquired more than 37,000 pieces of gear.

In 2011 alone, more than 700,000 items were transferred to police departments for a total value of $500 million.

Citing a former Seattle PD chief:

.. having small local police departments go around with tanks and military gear has “a chilling effect on any effort to strengthen the relationship” between the community and the cops. And that’s not the only danger. “There’s no justification for them having that kind of equipment, for one obvious reason, and that is if they have it, they will find a way to use it. And if they use it they will misuse it altogether too many times,” said Stamper.

Link:http://www.wired.com/dangerroom/2012...tary-gear/all/

[jmm99]

I'd like to quote Bob Jones from 2 years ago, FID or COIN? does it matter - Big Difference:

As to last US COIN; as I have stated on other threads I have come to believe that it is most helpful to look at COIN as Governance. COIN is a condition between a governance and its own populace. When you travel to another country to intervene in the relationship between that governance and populace you are either conducting UW or FID (in US doctrinal terms), depending on which side you are there to assist.

Arguably, viewed in this manner, all governance and every populace in every country is at some level of COIN/Insurgency at all times. Most are bumping along in what I would call "Phase 0". It is only when the government loses the bubble on the populace, that some segment of discontent will rise up from the masses to compete with the government for the support of the populace through illegal and typically violent means. This is when one enters Phase I Insurgency and typically needs to bring in military assistance to help move the conditions back down into Phase 0, or within the Civil government's span of control.

The major points are differentiating "COIN" from UW and FID; and also the introduction of a Phase 0 to "COIN".

Graphically, Phase 0 (and the normative Phases 1-3 of Mao) looked like this to Bob (12-17-2009):



More generally, I looked at it using different terms, as so (12-17-2009):



My small green "Rule of Law" triangle (under the red "Violence" line) corresponds to Bob's Phase 0 "COIN". The larger blue "Laws of War" area corresponds to Bob's Phases 1-3 "COIN". As Slap points out, TTPs "legal" in a "Laws of War" context are not necessarily "legal" in a "Rule of Law" context.

In terms of the nuts and bolts of it, Bill Moore has pointed up a few basic rules (whether the situation be FID, UW or "COIN") to support the overall concept of Be flexible, be realistic (12-06-2009).

Regards

Mike