The rule of law is deteriorating in this country. The police are just not up to the task. And the government is not up to the task of improving the policing regime.

I can only see it getting steadily worse.

So what can be done about it?

I envisage one very simple change that could make a huge difference….

Let’s do away with marked police cars altogether, and with police uniforms!

If we did this, practically every car on the road and every person on the street could potentially be a police officer in the eyes of those who currently feel that they can break the laws of the land with impunity.

If need be, the police could very quickly identify themselves, in police cars with flashing lights and sirens, or on the street by pulling a shoulder sash out of their pocket and putting it on, with the word ‘police’ emblazoned on it, front and back.

Wouldn’t this make a huge difference to the rule of law?

http://forum.onlineopinion.com.au/thread.asp?article=2877#52318

NSW already employs unmarked police cars with plain clothes cops.

The trick is to learn what cars they drive, and where they like to be deployed - the internet and social media help with that.

Yeah let's make the state's thugs and goons invisible, let's also do away with Police ID, warrants and the right to silence in interrogations.
Crime in Australia and other majority European societies has been on the decline for over two decades, we don't need to give Police more power, if anything we need to disarm all but a few trained marksmen on each shift and return them to a more civil dress code.
This is a Police uniform:
http://resources2.news.com.au/images/2010/03/22/1225843/999330-police-uniforms.jpg
This is a military battledress:
http://www.theage.com.au/ffximage/2007/01/24/code_wideweb__470x350,0.jpg

Yea! Disarm all but a few police.

Let's have more people defenceless against criminals.

I've got a better idea, disarm the criminals, shouldn't be hard; surely some on here who are keen to disarm the honest can think of effective ways to disarm the criminal.

Emotions so often take threads like this far from the intended directions.
Ludwig rightly points to concerns most have.
If true or just better reporting is behind our fears,or as many think migration we may never know.
I tend to think Ludwig wanted a way to slow the growth.
And while more unmarked cars and police may assist it can not alone stop the rot.
I think costs of imprisoning offenders and the wrong people judging them, maybe fueled by the former are at the root cause end of the problem

Is Mise,
In the UK firearms and tasers are carried only by specialist officers, there's no link between crime rates and having armed Police or not.
In the U.K crime overall has decreased by 58% since 1995:
http://www.theguardian.com/uk-news/2014/jan/23/crime-falls-lowest-level-32-years
In Australia where Police are armed it's also gone down by about the same percentage:
http://www.smh.com.au/federal-politics/society-and-culture/reporting-crime-drop-just-doesnt-pay-it-seems-20120306-1ui95.html
The situation is the same in the U.S.A where Police departments are militarised and the justice system is positively draconian:
http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/world-us-canada-13799616