Crime and public safety concerns rank high
What's the best gang plan? Greensboro City Council is looking at two options.
Both call for a new gang unit. One would draw from existing resources in the department. The other would add to police manpower, apparently at a cost of more than one million dollars to taxpayers.
In the background is the fact that police patrol divisions already have dozens of vacancies. Will overall police coverage decline for the sake of a new concentration on the gang problem no matter which way the city goes?
This is the time to address crime/gang/public safety issues. Just about all the City Council candidates we've interviewed so far put those issues at the top of their priority lists. If they're in tune with citizens, then the people of Greensboro want more done to make this city safer.
How? And at what cost? Should taxes be raised, or should funding be diverted from less urgent needs?
Comments (3)
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The high number of vacancies suggests that the police department could move forward without new funds (it also suggests that the department might have trouble actually spending funds if they were allocated). Could the Council ask (a) that the Department staff the gang unit as vacancies are reduced and (b) that the Department report back in six months or a year about whether it has been able to staff new positions?
Posted on August 28, 2007 11:06 AM
Give the police a budget and let them decide how to use it best. Nothing but socialist creep will result from adding new programs every time somebody identifies a new problem. Down with socialist creep!
Posted on August 29, 2007 2:16 PM
At this point, the department is reallocating existing resources - which I would think it could do without City Council approval. Maybe by budget time next year it will appear that additional resources aren't needed after all.
But I wouldn't count on that.
Posted on August 29, 2007 2:26 PM