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Maybe they should start actually hiring people rather than turning away qualified candidates, the city has put multiple notices out to the public trying to recruit, but when good recruits come walking in their doors they are not hired for whatever reason. The violence in this city is just going to get worse, the people who are performing the violent acts see the problem and are using it to their advantage. GET A CLUE!

$500,000 is definitely NOT too much. Make it happen, and make it happen now. I think the City Council is finally becoming aware that the Greensboro citizenry demands action on this issue. If $500,000 isn't enough, then find more money.

$500,000 is definitely NOT too much. Make it happen, and make it happen now. I think the City Council is finally becoming aware that the Greensboro citizenry demands action on this issue. If $500,000 isn't enough, then find more money. I agree with Kathy - hire the qualified candidates coming through the doors. As my father used to say, do whatever it takes to get the job done.

Redirect the money that the city council stole from public housing assistance for the Museum. That money would be better used to fight crime than going down the drain like the rest has over the last 13 years.

I did some quick math, and I am not sure $500,000.00 is an adequate amount. Please feel free to correct me on this.
$500,000.00 yields $333,333.00 after factoring in time-and-a-half that the money will be used for.
Using Greensboro's advertised entry pay for a police officer of $32,500.00, plus industry standard 25% overhead for benefits, yields $40,625.00 per officer. dividing the $333.333.00 available pool of money yields 12 officers available on a full time basis. if a normal rotation of, say, four days on/four days off is scheduled, that leaves six officers per rotation. Divide that by three shifts, and you get two oficers per shift- hardly enough to take on the gang-related crime in greensboro.
Perhaps reassigning officers within the department off of select details to assist the street level crime units that are already doing the job would be more fiscally responsible.

Jerry,

Shush your mouth. Your messing up the council's aggressive plan to deal with crime. Don't confuse them with the facts. They are not creative enough to make such a calculation.

Perhaps if the police department wasn't so wasteful with their current budget, they wouldn't need to ask for more money. If the department was more open-minded and interested in allowing volunteers to handle mundane tasks such as answering phones and directing calls, they would have the financial ability to keep more officers employed. If anyone needs a lesson in fiscal responsibility, it's Chief Bellamy.

We would be better off if we took some of the traffic cops off their beat and reassigned them to homicide. Traffic cops hang out in mass on the outer loop. They like stopping out of state citizens that are passing thru. They need a job.

It may just be a perception that Greensboro is the murder capitol of North Carolina but I know people from out lying towns who will not shop in greensboro and who definitely will not come to greensboro for late evening entertainment as I once did years ago. Carolineans don't feel safe in Greensboro anymore and that will be reflected in this year's holiday sales. Greensboro once had the finest police department in the state, bar none. but the perception in nearby cities is that the department is being torn apart by petty politics .GCPD is still a potent force of good guys and they do not need to be torn apart by racist and fool politics, let the boys do what they are trained to do, and they are trained very well, let Greensboro Police officers set the standard again, as they once did for all of North Carolina.

Captn. M.D. Martin
E.C.P.D. (retired)
Eden, N.C.

It may just be a perception that Greensboro is the murder capitol of North Carolina but I know people from out lying towns who will not shop in greensboro and who definitely will not come to greensboro for late evening entertainment as I once did years ago. Carolineans don't feel safe in Greensboro anymore and that will be reflected in this year's holiday sales. Greensboro once had the finest police department in the state, bar none. but the perception in nearby cities is that the department is being torn apart by petty politics .GCPD is still a potent force of good guys and they do not need to be torn apart by racist and fool politics, let the boys do what they are trained to do, and they are trained very well, let Greensboro Police officers set the standard again, as they once did for all of North Carolina.

Captn. M.D. Martin
E.C.P.D. (retired)
Eden, N.C.

Jennifer-
Taken from the GPD website-

"Volunteer Program

The objective of the Greensboro Police Department Volunteer Services Program is to place volunteers in various areas within the Department to assist and support sworn and non-sworn personnel in the performance of their duties.
The Volunteer Services Program is an asset to the Department as it offers an opportunity for new relationships between the Department and local citizens. The Volunteer Program increases personnel at minimal cost to the Department. Volunteers allow the Department to enhance its services and can give citizens an opportunity to use their skills and talents while supporting their local police department.

A Greensboro Police Department volunteer is a person who will contribute his or her services to the Department through the non-law enforcement services. The volunteer does not replace or substitute for paid personnel but supplements and complements them. The volunteer symbolizes Greensboro citizens' involvement in support of the Greensboro Police Department. "

That may be what their website says because GPD likes to make an effort on keeping up appearances with the public. Just try to volunteer. Once one of the strongest volunteer boards around, the Citizens Advisory board that used to make recommendations to the Chief directly, is all but defunct. Now what you have is a Community Advisory board that can make all the recommendations they want to the Community Resource Officers, but really the residents are only there to listen.

It used to be that graduates of the Police Department's Citizen Academy were put on a short list of approved volunteers for the department. Now, that group of individuals not only no longer serves on the Citizen Advisory Board, but also no longer has an alumni association.

Making good press and actually putting those words to use are two different things, Jerry.

Money would definately help the dept. but that is far from the problem. The problems are within and until they are resolved Greensboro is slowly going down the tube. Thankfully after living in what i thought was a wonderful city for thirty years i finally got smart and left but my son was not so fornuate. He was murdered in 2006 and to date no one has been arrested and in my heart I think no one ever will be. I thought the GPD was top notch but after hearing all the excuses on why his case isn't being worked on it would make you sick. Where is the dedication? And if the criminal is caught- they will spend more time in jail during the booking process than for the crime itself. Wake Up Greensboro this did not happen over night.

By the way Jerry, just highlighting part of your quote here: "The volunteer does not replace or substitute for paid personnel but supplements and complements them."

That is definitely NOT what I was proposing.

If you want change, you need to stand up and yell. I am not saying the readers aren't, I am simply pointing out that change DOES NOT happen from the top down, it goes the other way. Enough people have to take the time out of their schedules to actually DO something - like voting. If nobody at the bottom complains loud enough, those at the top don't hear - and I will be the first to say that should not be happening, but it is a fact that where there is a relative percieved balance, nobody is going to change a thing.

Well, I almost have to agree with one of the
writers here in regards to the volunteer issue.
Why waist the website space, police depart-
ments employees time, and other resources
on printing information pertaining to volunteers
when these programs don't ever take place.
Back during the period 1968 thru 1990 GPD
had a police explorer program that was VERY
POPULAR among all the citizens, officers, and
all the Chief's of this period. GPD Police Explorers conducted hundreds of volunteer
hours in and around the department that would
free both sworn as well as non sworn staff to
complete more in the way of enforcement and
enforcement related administrative tasks at hand. Police Explorers on the other hand is only one small segment since the age is restricted to ages 14 thru 21. Other volunteer
programs around the US are very popular and
seem to work well with departments about the
size of GPD's. Then on the other hand, we'll
need to have a police administration who's
supportive of such idea's. I recently attended
one of the GPD Citizen Academy's and went
out to ride with officers on a few occasions to see if anything had changed since the Police
Explorer days and boy has it ever changed.
I was barely talked to or greeted by some of
these officers. Ofcourse, the officers who knew
me from the Police Explorer days were super
to communicate with. But as I recall, even back
then, they were still super to communicate with
only after knowing and working with these
officers for the first time. Two officers who were very supportive of the Police Explorer program
and were themselves somewhat new to the
department were Captains George Holder and
Captain Rick Hunt. THANK YOU GPD FOR
HAVING FINE FOLKS SUCH AS THESE TWO
OFFICERS AMONG YOUR RANK AND FILE.

Warm Regards,

Ben Bennett
These comments are in HONOR of retired
GPD Sergeant Ray D. Pegram and founder
of GPD Police Explorer Post # 241

Maybe they should quit trying to make their ticket quotas and actually look for the criminals. Leave people alone for going 2 miles over the speed limit and get the drug dealers, thugs and gang members