I read the MJM this morning and there’s a story regarding the number of officers we have; specifically that we are short a few officers. The usual question that citizens ask me about the PD is “why can’t we just replace them faster?” The answer to this surprised me the first time I heard it:
Say that you, gentle reader, decided that you want to be a police officer and signed up today. It would be a year before you were in a patrol car by yourself, driving around the City. A year. There is time in the Academy and time spent in on the job training. This lead time makes it very difficult to consistently staff our police department. Even when we are lucky enough to hire officers from surrounding jurisdictions, they still need training on the laws in the City and some on the job training as well. The City has even taken the extraordinary step of hiring more police officers than are budgeted for when the opportunity presents itself because we know that with normal turnover, we are going to need them.
The reasons that we lose police officers are the same reasons people move from any job: pay, location and retirement. We compete fairly well (could always do a little better though) with surrounding jurisdictions when it comes to pay but the 800 lb. gorilla is the federal government. When DHS decides that they need to hire officers, we just can’t compete when cost is not an issue. The feds, after all, are allowed to run as big a deficit as they can stomach – a luxury we don’t have. In addition, we have several officers who have been recalled to active duty in the Armed Forces.
This year is shaping up to be particularly bad: the state is running short of money and the governor has proposed to cut funding that helps fund local police departments and put that money towards universal pre-k. I don’t have a fight with pre-k as it would be a great thing to have but not at the expense of cutting public safety funds.
October 6, 2007 at 11:24 pm
Andy,
I sincerely appreciate the fact that you allow me to continue to post on your blog, especially given my use of disrespectful language in the past. BVBL wiped me out after just a couple of posts (which is why BVBL is essentially greg’s echo chamber into which only a few select token comments of dissent are allowed). I do intend to remain provocative, however, if for no other reason than to provide some alternative to the much more provocative and much more self-gratifying greg. Plus, the facts are on my side, and I actually have some investment in this community. In any case, the crisis in attracting and retaining police officers is not the fault of any other agency or entity than the Manassas City Council. It’s as simple as this… pay enough to attract and retain qualified officers. The only reason Manassas doesn’t do that, honestly, is that the Manassas Republican party has no higher goal than maintaining low taxes. Crime? (so what?) Decline of neighborhoods? (so what?) Failing schools? (so what?) Not enough Police Officers (well, that’s just the cause of doing business when the Republican Party demands that its nominees sign a no new taxes pledge). All it would take for Manassas to have a fully equipped police force is for Mr. X and Mr. Y to decide to do so, by actually voting to pay for it. That is the simple and undeniable truth. Values have consequences…. and the penultimate value of those two men is not the safety of the citizens of Manassas… their penultimate value is their own popularity (and it’s da most’est, an not da best’est folks dat deir tryin’ to attract to da polls). It’s really sad, profoundly awful, in fact, when the City Chief of Police defends the understaffing of his department as “beyond the City Council’s control.” The only thing that the City Council can’t control is its loyalty to those who have a vote in the Republican mass meeting over their loyalty to the rest of the citizens of Manassas. The few folks who have a voice in the Republican mass meeting will just move away when the whole thing blows up though (they already chased out all native Manassans who earn over $12 an hour). All it takes to fix the problem is for Mr. X and Mr. Y to get smart and/ or get backbones, or for them to be replaced on the Council by responsible, sensible, and intelligent citizens.
October 8, 2007 at 7:17 am
Oh sure. It’s the Republicans fault. Market pressures from wealthier jurisdictions, cost of living to reside close to your place of work, and the draw of federal pay, pensions and benefits are nothing compared to the power of the Darkside….er, Republican Party. Next you will accuse the Manassas GOP of causing a drought, to save tax dollars on maintaining Lake Manassas.
Please spare me your anti-Republican rant. You want to rant about something? How about the ESOL ratio of students in the schools. Don’t you think that might be a huge drain on the taxpayers? What about the Candy Factory? Has that thing ever not run in the red?
October 8, 2007 at 7:49 am
TH:
The point here isn’t that we do or don’t pay equitably. We could pay each of our officers a million bucks a year but when they move on, are injured or retire, it still takes a year to replace them.
October 8, 2007 at 12:44 pm
Oh, and Mr. or Ms. TH, I challenge you to prove your assertion that the Manassas GOP makes its nominees sign a “no new tax pledge”. Show me. Get one City Councilman to back you up on this. You must be drinking from the Rishell Well of Dishonesty. This has never happened in the ten years I have been a member of this party.
Low Taxes, small government, limited regulation are traditional Republican principles. The party nominates a wide variety of candidates, and our long-running success comes from the fact that the ideals and principles of the Republican Party resonate with more voters in Manassas, than do those of the Democrats (Big Governement, large social programs, and higher taxes).
While I don’t agree with every vote the City Council makes, overall, they have done a good job governing in the time I have lived in this City, and they continue to do so.
As to your specious rant regarding the GOP nomination process, it is an open process. Any registered voter can attend a Mass Meeting or be a delegate to a convention. Voter apathy is what keeps people home. If they don’t want to participate in the nomination process, then shame on them. How about the other party? Please provide me the dates and times during the last 10 years where they had anything even close to an open nomination process, when they bother to nominate anyone.
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September 25, 2009 at 4:30 pm
А я люблю Ниссаны.
September 25, 2009 at 4:44 pm
А я люблю Ниссан.
April 9, 2010 at 4:02 pm
У меня небольшое замечание не слышали? …
November 11, 2010 at 5:34 am
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