My wife and I went to dinner the other evening and ran into an old friend that had retired from law enforcement about a year ago. I asked him if he had retired at the right time, and he readily agreed. We talked about retirement and our golf games, and the conversation turned to what is happening to the police forces in our community. He said that the city and county were both down, severely, in the number of officers on their respective forces and that there was little reaction to recruitment efforts. Young men and women were not interested in becoming police officers.
Recently, there was an attempt by the city to establish a police review board that would oversee the police department and their actions. The idea was stopped when it became evident that state law prevented any review board to be able to have any effect on the way the police department acted. The city council and the city manager both were sending a message that they did not believe the police department and its officers were trustworthy to police their own actions. It was a continuance of the rhetoric we see from other city politicians and there has been a terrible relationship between police and the city politicians. It becomes very difficult to work in an environment that has the bosses trying to defame their employees. There are not many people that want to work for someone that mistrusts them and says so publicly. The defund the police movement has caused great harm in the cities that embraced it with increases in crime, retiring officers, and loss of morale in the respective departments. The loss of morale has spilled into the cities that did not defund their police with poor recruitment and early retirements. Many police are reluctant to arrest some because of the backlash from the politicians or refusal by the prosecutors to push the case through the courts. It was reported this week that one person in New York City had been arrested 100 times for shop lifting and was still free on the streets. Another report said that 10 people had accounted for nearly 500 arrests in the past 2 years and were still free without bail. It is difficult for a police officer to risk his or her life to arrest someone that has committed a crime to have them released shortly after the arrest to repeat the crime. A bank robber in New Your robbed 3 banks each after being arrested for the previous robbery and still remained free without bail. Why would anybody want to become a police officer?
A few years ago, a young lady asked me if I knew of any apartments just outside of the city. She said that she was getting married, and her fiancé was a city fireman who was required to live within 10 miles of his station. She went on to say that all of the apartments that they found available cost more than they could afford with 2 incomes. The salary for police and fire are not sufficient for a new recruit to live on and stay within the city. In fact, the same is true for the State Troopers with many leaving after a few years to find better paying jobs. It will be impossible to recruit and keep these first responders until the governmental leaders learn to become real leaders instead of ideolog's and raise the pay to a livable wage. While this is waiting to happen the criminals and drug pushers are having a hay day plying their trades. Crime is increasing, and the drug problem is getting worse with a result of increases in the homeless population. We really need to stop painting bicycles on the streets and fix the potholes that could injure the cyclist.
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