Policing

David’s vision for policing, including staying Constitutional, staying local, increasing effectiveness, and decreasing distractions.

An Orem Police Department patrol car.

“The function of government is to protect life, liberty, and property, and anything more or less than this is usurpation and oppression.”

– Ezra Taft Benson

“The right of self defence is the first law of nature: in most governments it has been the study of rulers to confine this right within the narrowest limits possible. Wherever standing armies are kept up, and the right of the people to keep and bear arms is, under any colour or pretext whatsoever, prohibited, liberty, if not already annihilated, is on the brink of destruction.”

– St. George Tucker

“No man has a natural right to commit aggression on the equal rights of another, and this is all from which the laws ought to restrain him.”

– Thomas Jefferson

Policing Effectively

As an Orem city councilor, my primary responsibility is to expertly assist you in defending your equal God-given (or natural) rights from others’ aggression, which involves effective policing. As part of my interest in helping the Orem Police Department to operate as effectively as possible, I want to focus on these following four policing priorities:

  1. Stay Constitutional. I support regular training of police officers in both God-given rights and Constitutional law. Every public officer swears an oath-of-office to uphold the U. S. Constitution, and no police officer (especially) should ever fail to understand these Constitutional duties, including to conscientiously defy unlawful orders.
  2. Stay Local. National police are hallmarks of totalitarian states. So, I feel deeply concerned about ongoing long-term trends to nationalize, dumb-down, and/or militarize our peace officers into a standing army of sorts. I pledge to resist any such trends, including potential overuse of SWAT teams, and to keep our peace officers local.
  3. Increase Effectiveness. Orem’s police are currently closing only about 52% of their criminal cases—and, although this rate is about average in 2023 for American cities, I’d prefer for Orem to shine above-average in this regard. I want to ensure that our rights-defending heroes never lack sufficient knowledge, skill, or tools to thwart criminals.
  4. Decrease Distractions. Our peace officers might thwart crime more easily if they weren’t as busy enforcing regulations. I want to eliminate burdensome regulatory laws, like restrictions on business signs beyond rights-defense, which would also allow businesspeople to focus less on pleasing bureaucrats and more on serving customers.

I’m confident that these four priorities will facilitate the success of our city’s rights-defending heroes, especially in combination with my other legislative goals, which are to eliminate central planning of people’s lands, occupations, and businesses, while privatizing city-run businesses and possibly revising our city’s form-of-government.

On Police Overreach

In 2007, Orem police briefly jailed elderly Betty Perry for being too poor to water her lawn, injuring her in the process, but they soon released her and refused to press charges. This excessive use of force for behavior that didn’t violate anyone’s rights was (thankfully) a rare exception for Orem’s rights-defending heroes, and I’ll do my best to keep it so.