It's an intriguing concept, but I'm not sure how well it would work. As I recall, privateers made most of their income from the cargo and prize ships hey captured. Narco traffickers don't have much cargo the privateers could keep or resell without become narco traffickers themselves, and the specifications listed stipulate that any prize ships or captured enemy must be remanded to US custody. So, unless the US government was offering generous bounties, I dunno how well it would work... and that sort of negates the value of outsourcing by commissioning privateers.
Also, I'm not a big fan of that "capture, not kill" stipulation - drug dealers as a rule don't like being captured, and will kill YOU in a heartbeat to prevent their own capture, making this version of privateering a real adventure I suppose - you have to take them alive, but they are allowed to kill you while you're doing that. Seems a bit unfair.
On the plus side, private citizens can do things that sworn officers can't legally do. Private citizens don't have to Mirandize before an interrogation, for example. Miranda warnings only kick in once you're in governmental custody. That's just one example - there are other things private citizens can get away with that sworn officers can't. That was the whole reason that a police department approached me to team up with their sworn officers in certain areas - I could get away with things legally the officers couldn't. I turned them down, but it was a sound concept on the surface.
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Also, I'm not a big fan of that "capture, not kill" stipulation - drug dealers as a rule don't like being captured, and will kill YOU in a heartbeat to prevent their own capture, making this version of privateering a real adventure I suppose - you have to take them alive, but they are allowed to kill you while you're doing that. Seems a bit unfair.
On the plus side, private citizens can do things that sworn officers can't legally do. Private citizens don't have to Mirandize before an interrogation, for example. Miranda warnings only kick in once you're in governmental custody. That's just one example - there are other things private citizens can get away with that sworn officers can't. That was the whole reason that a police department approached me to team up with their sworn officers in certain areas - I could get away with things legally the officers couldn't. I turned them down, but it was a sound concept on the surface.
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“Trouble rather the tiger in his lair than the sage among his books. For to you kingdoms and their armies are things mighty and enduring, but to him they are but toys of the moment, to be overturned with the flick of a finger.”
― Gordon R. Dickson, Tactics of Mistake
― Gordon R. Dickson, Tactics of Mistake