Slog
News & ArtsWednesday, September 26, 2012
Crime Expanding Police Work
Posted by Charles Mudede on Wed, Sep 26, 2012 at 8:38 AM
Roadside emergency births take place in other countries too. But Bangkok's notorious traffic jams, with expressways and interior roads alike coming to a grinding halt for hours almost every day, have forced city authorities to come up with innovative ways to deal with an unconventional problem - what to do with the increasing number of pregnant women who get stuck on their way to the hospital...What should we see in this? The need for a complete rethinking of police work. At present, police work is mostly about enforcing laws against crimes or solving them. Recall what Marx once wrote:All these vehicles are crammed into Bangkok's inadequate road network. The city has a road surface area that accounts for only 8 per cent of the metropolis, compared to 20-30 per cent in most Western municipalities.
To cope with the problem, a special unit of police midwives was formed under the auspices of the Royal Traffic Police Project, which was set up in 1993 to help people stranded in traffic....
The officers are trained every year at Bangkok Hospital, and also receive training from Honda to drive safely, a critical element of their preparations as they frequently hit speeds of up to 150 km/h when rushing towards an emergency.
Earlier this year, the police delivered their 100th baby, and since then the tally has risen to 107.
The criminal produces the whole of the police and of criminal justice, constables, judges, hangmen, juries, etc.; and all these different lines of business, which form equally many categories of the social division of labour, develop different capacities of the human spirit, create new needs and new ways of satisfying them.Put another way, criminals have the police all to themselves. But criminals are a fraction of the urban population, a fraction that's allocated a huge portion of our public human resources. The city has so many other needs, other emergencies beside crimes—which really come down to crimes against property, the policing of which comes down to the maintenance of the dominant economic order, and an economy is only about the manner in which wealth is distributed in a given society, and rarely is that distribution anywhere close to fair (hence the need for enforcement). In short, we need to expand police work into other, non-economic (at least in the direct sense) but still very essential and more common/realistic parts of urban life.
2
To be totally fair, police already do much more than enforcing laws or investigating crimes; that's why there are victim's advocates, for example, and community outreach events. Or police help in non-crime situations as they come up; for instance, I'll always be grateful to the officer who helped my mother when she found my grandmother's body (old age). It just so happens that Seattle's police aren't very good at these other things, but they certainly do them.
4
Great post. This reminds me of reading about Hunter S. Thompson's campaign for the sheriff or Pitkin County (Aspen, CO) in 1970, where he promised to rip up the concrete and sod the streets, take away the cop's guns and employ them instead as repairmen for the municipal bicycle fleet.
6
I guess solving the transportation problem isn't something the cops can do. Are there no traffic laws in Bangkok? Sending midwives speeding through gridlock can't be e\helping, but apparently it beats solving the root problem.
7
I like this attitude a lot. Charles is on a roll recently minus the 150sqft apartments (can you get a bed, toilet, desk, and something to store clothes in in 150sqft?).
Put another way, the focus of police should to help law-abiding citizens, whether or not that happens to involve law enforcement at any given time. Instead, the police's mission is to incarcerate as many criminals as possible; and far too often they only consider non-criminals as being in the way, or as potential criminals themselves.
Put another way, the focus of police should to help law-abiding citizens, whether or not that happens to involve law enforcement at any given time. Instead, the police's mission is to incarcerate as many criminals as possible; and far too often they only consider non-criminals as being in the way, or as potential criminals themselves.
8
Charles can't argue for fixing the traffic problem, Sir Vic, because he hates cars and loves density.
When you do that, you get Bangkok.
When you do that, you get Bangkok.
9
In Black Rock City the all-volunteer 'Rangers' don't enforce laws so much as help de-escalate situations so that people can resolve issues by themselves; they help out with various problems; help spread important information; assist people with all manner of health issues; and provide for general safety, as much as that is prudent, and without stopping people from actually hurting themselves. They also act as liaisons with the actual police (LEOs) who are present.
They are a good model for community "policing". I wish we had BRC Rangers operating in our cities.
They are a good model for community "policing". I wish we had BRC Rangers operating in our cities.
12
The recent British documentary series Coppers also made this point-- the majority of police work the officers were called in for didn't involve crimes, but instead a kind of front-line, 24-hour social work for people who were well outside the traditional social order.
13
Good Afternoon Charles,
I agree with @2 & @12. The police are far more than just manifest law enforcement. They are the first to arrive at motor vehicle or other accidents, sometimes quite ghastly. And they monitor/direct traffic. Quite dangerous BTW. Many officers have been killed directing traffic. They do "serve & protect".
@9
I've been to BRC (Burning Man) 3X. Yeah, the Rangers are good. But, it's an entirely different scenario. One must pay to enter BRC (have a ticket) and it isn't representative demographically of the populations that conventional police serve. Plus, from my recollection BRC also has the BLM (Bureau of Land Management) law enforecement officers on hand should anything escalate. Simply put, it isn't comparable.
I agree with @2 & @12. The police are far more than just manifest law enforcement. They are the first to arrive at motor vehicle or other accidents, sometimes quite ghastly. And they monitor/direct traffic. Quite dangerous BTW. Many officers have been killed directing traffic. They do "serve & protect".
@9
I've been to BRC (Burning Man) 3X. Yeah, the Rangers are good. But, it's an entirely different scenario. One must pay to enter BRC (have a ticket) and it isn't representative demographically of the populations that conventional police serve. Plus, from my recollection BRC also has the BLM (Bureau of Land Management) law enforecement officers on hand should anything escalate. Simply put, it isn't comparable.
14
I was lucky enough to photographing the Royal Thai Midwife Unit for Spectrum Magazine when they helped in delivering a baby in the back of a Bangkok taxi. They are well respected by Thai's which is not always the case with other police units, such as traffic control for instance. In over 20 years of being a photojournalist this is still on of my favourite images- http://jonathantaylorphotography.com/lif…
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