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Notes -
Thanks for the link. I actually thought about that as I was writing, but thought including it would be going too far afield, and I wasn't sure where to get actual data on the question. But, I was under the impression that certain rights are much more limited in other countries.
It's not obvious to me that civil rights are the only knob that could be tuned to make policing more efficient. Some of what the Warren Court decided was certainly conjured from thin air, but I do like having the 4th Amendment around. There is an enormous amount of process that could probably be streamlined, or at least sped up, by hiring more judges and lawyers (with the savings coming from having shorter prison sentences, like the original article mentions for police).
Police training seems to be sorely lacking. Your article mentions this, and for some reason finding good numbers seems to be hard, but I believe American police tend to have much shorter training periods than in other countries.
Ending the war on drugs would free up a bunch of police resources directly and indirectly reduce the number of homicides.
Non-police could do some of the things we currently have police do, like giving traffic tickets. Safety rules are generally enforced by other means (think of building inspections, or restaurant sanitation).
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