Law enforcement must be respected. It also needs to be liked. And, above all, it must be trusted. Citizens should feel welcome to engage with police — not coerced. That balance is what makes American law enforcement different.

Douglas County now plans to require retailers who’ve been victimized by shoplifters to report the crime to police or face fines ranging from $50 to $1,000. I applaud the sentiment shoplifting won’t be tolerated in Douglas County. But this ordinance risks backfiring.

Let’s start with the obvious: it makes no sense to pass a law that can’t be enforced. We usually leave that sort of thing to the mandate-happy left.

We complain — rightly — about unenforceable gun-control laws designed not to stop crime, but to hassle the people who actually follow the law.

Take Boulder’s ban on so-called “assault weapons.” A woman moves into town with a legally owned AR-15. Under the ordinance, she’s supposed to destroy it or turn it over to police. Odds are she does neither — out of ignorance or quiet resistance. The law doesn’t remove the firearm; it just drives her underground. She’s less likely to take it to the range or even talk about it for fear of legal harassment. Cancel culture in action.

And here’s the kicker: she hasn’t done anything. One day she’s law-abiding. The next she’s a criminal — without lifting a finger. Without taking an action.

Douglas County’s shoplifting rule isn’t very different. With gun control we ask, “Exactly how will you enforce this?” Or do lawmakers already know they can’t — and they’re just virtue-signaling on the taxpayers’ dime? Are they hoping neighbor turns in neighbor?

DougCo commissioners had better have precise answers.

Picture a shop owner who realizes someone lifted a pack of gum. He does the quick mental math: time spent filing a police report, following up with prosecutors, maybe testifying in court.

The cheapest option might be paying the $50 fine and getting back to running his business.

So, he quietly breaks another government rule — one of the thousands already on the books — because compliance costs more than the penalty. That’s not law and order. That’s regulatory roulette.

This ordinance is unfriendly to the very businesses Douglas County claims to support. For to run a small business is to spend 80% of your time on governmental compliance. Now, the same officials who say they want to make business easier are threatening fines and paperwork tied to a stolen pack of gum.

Good grief. Colorado’s California-style regulations already beat small businesses over the head daily. Cut them a break.

We’ll be told reporting theft is easy and quick. Maybe. But the last time I called 911 in Denver, I was put on hold for three minutes and then disconnected. I’m sure Douglas County does better — but no government agency is a shining monument to efficiency or respect for your time.

Worse, the ordinance requires businesses to retain and provide video surveillance footage, among other time-consuming tasks. That’s an unfunded mandate — the kind of bureaucratic nonsense our Stalinist legislature gives us, not Douglas County commissioners.

I doubt most cops and prosecutors have never run a retail shop. They don’t get how laws like this turn business owners into reluctant bureaucrats. This builds resentment, not trust.

You know what I hate more than shoplifters? (And I really do hate shoplifters.) Rapists.

Sexual assault is a bit worse than stealing a pack of gum. Shouldn’t Douglas County mandate rape victims report their crime even if they don’t want to? Shouldn’t Douglas County send out a message sexual assault will not be tolerated? You know, like shoplifting?

Yes, the comparison is extreme. But the principle is the same: victims of crime shouldn’t be victimized again by the legal system — even when the burden is labeled a “minor inconvenience.”

Punishing victims is not how you win public trust — or elections.

I love law-and-order politicians. God knows, after a decade of the criminal-first, victim-last insanity in Colorado, we need them more than ever. But even the law-and-order crowd should tread carefully.

Otherwise, the perception grows: we are hammers, so everything, even you, looks like a nail.

The answer to criminal bad guys is not to punish the good guys who are just trying to survive.

So careful my friends. Law enforcement already has enough public-relations challenges. Let’s not make life harder for them.

Jon Caldara is president of the Independence Institute in Denver and hosts “The Devil’s Advocate with Jon Caldara” on Colorado Public Television Channel 12. His column appears Sundays in Colorado Politics.