The biggest problem: the police unions, which are usually tightly connected to the local Republican Party apparatus & thus very powerful. Camden got around this in 2013 by axing its police department & transferring its functions to the county sheriff's office: www.camdencounty.com/ccpd-buildin...

In a lot of places, it doesn’t make sense for every town and city to have a police department simply from an efficiency standpoint. It’s also significantly cheaper for municipalities to arrange agreements with county police departments and sheriff’s offices.

Absolutely. I think policing should be unified at no lower than the state level.