Pubdate: Thu, 01 Jun 2000 Date: 06/01/2000 Source: Orange County Register (CA) Author: Lionel De Leon When the police "play by the rules" the criminals have the advantage,because criminals, by their very nature, disregard the rules. In order to tip the advantage toward law enforcement, we have allowed the police to become criminals in order to catch them. Our streets are indeed safer, as statistics demonstrate. Our prisons are also crowded and we have the distinction of having the largest per-capita prison population in the world. The danger in allowing police the freedom to use any means to catch crooks is that the police become above the law and may justify even murder to achieve their means. Police empowerment reduces civil liberties, and we have to be careful not to be too zealous in our quest for criminal eradication. Otherwise we may become a police state with regulations for every aspect of life. Lionel De Leon, Garden Grove