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Penny-Pinching Towns Put Police Out to Pasture
AOL News ^ | 13 July 2010 | Karen Schwartz

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 ...


TOPICS: Government; US: Colorado
KEYWORDS: cultureofcorruption; donutwatch; policeforce; revenuetickets
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To: Lorianne

My recently former hometown of Mt. Clemens, MI ditched the PD and contracted with Sheriff about 5 years ago. Saved a ton of money and there is better law enforcement now. Most of the officers were absorbed as deputies.


21 posted on 07/14/2010 3:29:22 PM PDT by cyclotic (Boy Scouts-Developing Leaders in a World of Followers.)
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To: Brookhaven

Unincorporated??? I believe that is the term when a self-governing municipality cashes in its chips.


22 posted on 07/14/2010 3:42:05 PM PDT by Tallguy ("The sh- t's chess, it ain't checkers!" -- Alonzo (Denzel Washington) in "Training Day")
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To: Ol' Dan Tucker

“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.”

It’s part of the programming that the citizens of this country have been subjected to. It has worked well. So has our obedience programming.


23 posted on 07/14/2010 3:56:21 PM PDT by dljordan ("His father's sword he hath girded on, And his wild harp slung behind him")
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To: Oshkalaboomboom
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.

Who mandates this? I would just privitize the schools anf cut property taxes by the equivalent amount that used to run the schools.

24 posted on 07/14/2010 4:48:49 PM PDT by Vince Ferrer
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To: Oshkalaboomboom

America could do just fine without public schools and the police.


25 posted on 07/14/2010 4:51:43 PM PDT by B-Chan
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To: Lorianne
The last little one horse town I lived in had a police force and no large base for taxes...So it cost a small fortune. I sat down one day and tried to figure out what a police force cost. Cost: at least enough men to cover a 24 hour period, 3 shifts...another few to cover vacation time for the cops. Upkeep on the 5 cars they had, office workers pensions etc....it came to close to one million dollars for a town that had a population of less than 5000. The sheriff's department could do the job for a lot less money....We are not talking about big cities here, but rural towns miles from big cities...The taxes were horrible and the town was so small that if you lived within 1/2 mile of the post office, you had to have a p.o. box as they didn't deliver mail to those close to the post office and it was perfectly legal...
26 posted on 07/14/2010 5:08:47 PM PDT by goat granny
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To: a fool in paradise

In Kaleefornia when a local small town gets rid of its Police force, the Sheriff’s Department takes over. I won’t name the county, but there is one county where at different times, small cities let their Police Departments go. The problem with that was that the Sheriff’s Department didn’t play politics or go along with the local graft in these cities. As soon as was possible, the cities reinstated their Police Departments.


27 posted on 07/14/2010 6:32:49 PM PDT by Enterprise (As a disaster unfolds, a putz putts.)
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To: Brookhaven

A city must incorporate before it can be a city. When the local politicians decide to change it back, the city becomes unincorporated.


28 posted on 07/14/2010 6:35:18 PM PDT by Enterprise (As a disaster unfolds, a putz putts.)
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To: Lorianne
Maywood, Calif., an industrial working-class town of more than 30,000 residents. ~ ... had a $450,000 deficit in a $210 million budget.

$7,000 per person in taxes? $28,000 per average family? There's a crime right there!

29 posted on 07/14/2010 9:34:10 PM PDT by kitchen (One battle rifle for each person, and a spare for each pair.)
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To: Lorianne

Leslie Fish addressed this sort of thing in song. Excuse it’s length but it speaks to the question:

See him stalking day or night
The islands of the bay
Like some veteran tiger
Come to hunt his chosen pray
He’ll never lack a target here
For scum will always rise
And to the man who guards your walls
That comes as no surprise

Chorus
And who will be the guardian
To take your dangers on
Who will guard your sleep at night
When old Black Cal is gone

For one in ten’s a predator
Who treats the rest as prey
So someone’s always needed here
To drive those wolves away
We never left the jungle
We just carted it to town
The leopards took on human form
And follow us around

Chorus

Who will dare deny him there
And say it isn’t so
Must claim there’s no walkway at night
They wouldn’t dare to go
That sovereignty or righteousness
Will keep them safe from harm
And if their own front door is shut
The whole wide world is warm

Chorus

Who will say the job is wrong
And shouldn’t be at all
Must then take up the gun themselves
To guard each door and wall
Must spend their nights in sentry lines
Their days in packing heat
It’s easier to pay the man
Full time to guard your streets

Chorus

Evolution never stops
We always have to choose
The thug who waits to mug you
Is collecting Darwin’s dues
And you can’t drive hyenas off
By kneeling down to pray
So who will raise the weapon then
To keep the beasts at bay

Chorus

Run like deer
Or die like sheep
Or take your dangers on
For you must guard your sleep yourselves
When old Black Cal is gone


30 posted on 07/15/2010 12:27:14 AM PDT by tlb
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To: Lorianne
Can't these police forces just auction off the gazillions of dollars worth of military hardware they've been using to keep Grandma in line?

I could use an APC and some RPGs for the upcoming elk season.

31 posted on 07/15/2010 1:49:43 AM PDT by meadsjn (Sarah 2012, or sooner)
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To: B-Chan

But who will offices and grocery stores hire to stop traffic for them and their customers?


32 posted on 07/15/2010 8:12:28 AM PDT by a fool in paradise (I wish our president loved the US military as much as he loves Paul McCartney.)
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To: tlb
you must guard your sleep yourselves When old Black Cal is gone

I guard my sleep myself now. It's being turned into prey for Black Cal that's the problem. Black Cal can kill me and get away with it.

33 posted on 07/15/2010 9:45:04 AM PDT by B-Chan
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To: dljordan
It’s part of the programming that the citizens of this country have been subjected to. It has worked well. So has our obedience programming.

CORRECT!!!! Don't ever listen to anyone who says the public schools are a failure. They have performed exactly as designed. They have made us into a nation of state worshipping drones. And "conservatives" are just as bad as the left.

34 posted on 07/15/2010 10:05:09 AM PDT by Forgotten Amendments (I'd rather be Plaxico Burress than Sean Taylor)
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To: Forgotten Amendments

“CORRECT!!!! Don’t ever listen to anyone who says the public schools are a failure. They have performed exactly as designed. They have made us into a nation of state worshipping drones. And “conservatives” are just as bad as the left. “

The Pledge of Allegiance was written by a socialist but I’ve seen people here go bonkers when someone posts an article about someone not wanting to recite it.


35 posted on 07/15/2010 5:24:21 PM PDT by dljordan ("His father's sword he hath girded on, And his wild harp slung behind him")
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To: dljordan
The Pledge of Allegiance was written by a socialist but I’ve seen people here go bonkers when someone posts an article about someone not wanting to recite it.

DING-DING-DING-DING

You have a clue. You are dangerous.

;)

36 posted on 07/15/2010 5:47:00 PM PDT by Forgotten Amendments (I'd rather be Plaxico Burress than Sean Taylor)
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