POLICE CORRUPTION

"Battle Against Bad Cops Isn't Fought Only in L.A." (May 28)
provides an important perspective on a problem that may be best solved
at the national level. Many countries, including Canada and Great
Britain, enjoy the protection and efficiency of a national police
force, making corruption in individual locales much harder to hide and
multiplying the law enforcement capacities of each.

The cost savings of shared administrative functions, including
training, personnel review and the building, maintenance and use of
databases (especially DNA, where the U.S. is so far behind countries
like Great Britain) would be a boon to our fiscally beleaguered
municipalities and individual taxpayers.

Perhaps it is time for the U.S. to put aside its old antipathy toward
national police forces, used by totalitarian regimes to repress the
people. Our Constitution provides well-tested safeguards against a
police state; we ought to make it easier for our millions of honest
police officers to function with the integrity and efficiency that we
expect from our armed forces.

Ralph Kosche, Canoga Park