At first blush, the United States seems to have the most politically and legally accountable policing in the world. Local politics ensures that policing is democratic, and federal law ensures that police don’t abuse their considerable power. In practice, the system has large flaws. Most American cities are seriously underpoliced — not because a majority of voters want it that way and not because the law requires it, but because the system’s institutional design makes it so. That fact may contribute to America’s enormous prison population. The legal rules that allegedly protect minority rights are likewise flawed, mostly because the wrong lawmakers police the police.
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