correct... my quick search shows this is for real... and has been going on for a while...
interesting idea, that is not easily reproducible in a large scale city, but for smaller towns, it makes sense...
the cost of pensions alone and litigation from police cases is much less if they contract out and the liability is passed on to the company who then buys insurance policy...
and when that happens, the employee actually feels the financial hit when the company pays out from a lawsuit.. as it is when cops commit a crime and the city gets sued, the tax payer pays but not the offending cop...
Not anti-cop by any means, just an observation... but like I said, won't work in a large city... just a different demographic and scale of operation...