Facebook Buys It's Own Police Officer

http://www.cbsnews.com/news/facebook-bankrolls-police-officer-near-california-headquarters/

Facebook has agreed to pay the city where it's based more than $200,000 a year over the next three years for a community safety police officer, CBS San Francisco station KPIX-TV reports. The officer will work out of a new substation near the social networking giant's headquarters in Menlo Park and serve the surrounding neighborhood.

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With Facebook picking up the tab, some wonder whether the company will get special treatment. When asked about any possible conflict of interest, Mueller said, "The only way that you would have a conflict of interest is if somehow someone tried to exert influence over our police force. That's not going to happen."

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Mixed feelings about it -- on one hand, they could have simply made a donation to the police department and said 'do as you will to enhance your dept', so for Facebook to actually 'buy' a specific officer shows they are already having an influence on what the department chooses to do with the money.

On the other hand, they could have used the funds to simply add to their own private security forces which would probably not have been a general benefit to neighbors who could not call upon the private security for assistance. My guess is that their goal is to help clean up crime in the area, but what happens when a corporation pays for one officer so directly? How easy would it be for them vs. a generic citizen to 'have someone arrested' because their call gets answered.


Just posting to see what folks think.