1. Can you justify on ethical grounds, the development and continuing expansion of private police-like those described in North Carolina? Are these entities a "threat to democracy," as Professor Sklansky cautions?

lakes and train stations" (Cooper, 2013, p. 2). These agencies and officers "are a vital part of the criminal justice system's efforts in this state, as they supplement state, municipal and county police agencies, thereby relieving them of some of the calls-for-service fburdens confrontingl all law enforcement agencies" (emphasis added; Cooper, 2013, p. 2). Company police efficers in North Carolina must meet the same minimum standards required for employment and certification as a law enforcement officer, including completion of Basic Law Enforcement Training. Additionally, they must complete an examination on the law and administrative rules governing company police with a minimum score of 80\%. If approved, an applicant will receive law enforcement certification from the North Carolina Criminal Justice Education and Training Standards Commission. Once the applicant has been officially sworn in by attesting to an oath of office. they will receive a commission from the Attorney General. This commission will give the company police officer the same subject matter jurisdiction as other sworn law enforcement officers to make arrests for both felonies and misdemeanors, as well as to charge for infractions. The authority of company police officers is subject to strict jurisdictional limitations (Cooper, 2013). All company police officers, while in the performance of their duties of employment, have the same powers as municipal and county police officers to make arrests for both felonies and misdemeanors and to charge for infractions occurring on: 1. Property owned by or in the possession and control of their employer; 2. Property owned by or in the possession and control of a person who has contracted with the employer to provide onsite company police security personnel services for the property; or 3. Any other real property while in continuous and immediate pursuit of a person for an offense committed upon property described in (1) or (2), above. Company police officers are all officers not designated as a campus police officer or a railroad police officer. One observer of private policing agencies and officers has suggested that these entities pose a direct threat to democracy. Law professor David Sklansky has argued that the threat from private police is twofold (Sklansky, 2006, Pp. 90-91). First, private police dampen political support for public law enforcement that is committed, at least nominally. to protecting everyone, resulting in a system of policing even less egalitarian than the one we have today. The second threat from private police is their aborting largely unrealized efforts to democratize public police departments. The result is a forfeiting of ways of making policing more effective, humane, and respectful of democratic processes (Sklansky, 2006, p. 91). Can you justify on ethical grounds, the development and continuing expansion of private police-like those described in North Carolina? Are these entities a "threat to democracy," as Professor Sklansky cautions