Posted on 07/14/2010 2:21:22 PM PDT by Lorianne
FORT COLLINS, Colo. (July 13) -- The sheriff will be walking the streets again in San Luis -- the oldest community in Colorado. But it's not a return to the Wild West; the town fired its entire police force to save money.
Around the country other towns -- large and small -- are also eliminating their police departments. The Los Angeles suburb of Maywood, Calif., fired its officers, as did rural Bethel, Maine. Near Pittsburgh, Fallowfield, Pa., also voted to disband its police department.
The towns have been turning law enforcement over to county sheriffs, a decision that Jim Pasco, executive director of the National Fraternal Order of Police, called "penny wise and pound foolish."
He told AOL News that sheriff's departments and state police don't have the manpower to properly patrol larger areas.
"The absolute threshold responsibility of a government at any level is to ensure the safety of its citizens," he said, adding that local police officers are more effective because they "know the town, know the people and know the nuances."
(Excerpt) Read more at aolnews.com ...
Well, THIS won't last long.
Maywood had a $450,000 deficit in a $210 million budget. In addition, it had been unable to obtain insurance and workers' compensation coverage because it had faced too many lawsuits, many involving the police.
Rather than declare bankruptcy, all city functions were outsourced this month. The duties of the 41 police officers -- who also patrolled the neighboring city of Cudahy -- were turned over to the sheriff's department in neighboring East Los Angeles.
Tax money is needed to buy votes for politicians.
Too many cities want the revenue from tickets without the expense of trials, court appointed attorneys, and lockup expenses for violent and thieving offenders.
If the police are no longer needed to “protect and serve” disband the “metermaid” force and let the public carry as the Constitution permits.
If they’re following the same model as TPD the cops aren’t doing much anyway. We’ve got cameras for traffic violations, traffic accidents that don’t involve major injury aren’t responded to, call in that your place got broken into they mail you a form. Might as well get rid of them.
Ah, the old 'public safety' saw, again.
It has been reaffirmed in the courts, time and time again, that the police are not there to ensure anyone's safety. They're job is to uphold the law --period.
Perhaps the real reason why so many municipalities are disbanding their police forces is that they can no longer afford to pay settlements to the next of kin after the cops are done riddling the citizens with bullets.
That, along with the practice of padding their retirement pay was probably the straws that break the camels' backs.
from what I’ve seen of my local small town PD, we’d be better off without them.
There. Fixed it. I don't want a local police force who "know the nuances".
I want them to know who the nutcases are and keep them away from me and mine.
What if they disbanded the Police department and nobody notice...
Just Union Thugs without jobs.
A small city near us eliminated their police dept. to save money. After they did, people started asking “Exactly what are we getting for paying city taxes?” The county was already running the schools. Even the garbage collection was done privately. All they were getting was some extra city regulations and the honor of paying for a mayor, city council, and city bearucrats.
In other words, when the city quit providing extra police protection there was no reason for the city to exist. Eventually the city disbanded (or whatever the right word is for ceasing to be a city.)
I agree. Police are unnecessary in most municipalities. The efforts of armed property owners and the local sheriff are plenty to keep order and prevent serious crime.
Ask yourselves: what would change in my neighborhood if the police just went away? Chances are the answer is “not much”. The police do not keep crooks from breaking into your home or business; you do that. The police do not keep crooks from robbing, raping, or mugging you in the street; you do that. The police do not keep crooks from stealing your car or bicycle or busting into your business; you (and private security guards) do that. Are you going to stop doing that just because the Boys in Blue aren’t there anymore? Of course not.
One thing that would change: you’d know that the guy beating you up or putting a bullet into you wasn’t going to use a badge to get away with it.
America got along fine for almost 150 years without professional police. We can do so again.
Oakland laid off 80 officers last night.
On the heels of the riots last Thursday night over the Bart police officer shooting New Year’s Eve of 2008, this lack of fiscal ability to pay the cops is 80 fewer cops trying to keep the peace in Oakland.
One other note:
Written on the brick wall of a locally owned business the night of the riot:
SAY NO TO WORK
SAY YES TO LOOTING
That says it all-—
Thanks, LBJ, all that integration, welfare, Head Start & ‘education’——this is the end result.
The activities of the DOJ & NObama are setting race relations back over 100 years & cramming a double standard of activities at polling places will cause serious payback, IMO.
Will the SWAT teams disappear, too?
You post gave me a good laugh. Thanks for posting LOL
Paying for schools is mandated, you have to do it. Police, fire, ambulance, etc., are optional so they are the first to go. In a perfect world you could fire 90% of the worthless teachers and keep the police.
Allow residents more freedom less fear in keeping and using firearms, when duly needed, and you don’t need no stinkin’ police force. A sheriff will do when you need somebody to document a lawful shootin’
“In a perfect world you could fire 90% of the worthless teachers and keep the police.”
What Fer? Unless you have a “thing” for young bucks with shaved heads and muscles they are pretty worthless.
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