Posted on 09/09/2023 6:17:09 AM PDT by Diana in Wisconsin
As Goodhue Police Chief Josh Smith struggled this summer to fill vacancies in his small department, he warned the town's City Council that unless pay and benefits improved, finding new officers would never happen.
When nothing changed, Smith quit. So did his few remaining officers, leading the Minnesota town of 1,300 residents to shutter its police force in late August.
America is in the midst of a police officer shortage that many in law enforcement blame on the two-fold morale hit of 2020 — the coronavirus pandemic and criticism of police that boiled over with the murder of George Floyd by a police officer. From Minnesota to Maine, Ohio to Texas, small towns unable to fill jobs are eliminating their police departments and turning over police work to their county sheriff, a neighboring town or state police.
The trend isn't altogether new.
At least 521 U.S. towns and cities with populations of 1,000 to 200,000 disbanded policing between 1972 and 2017, according to a peer-reviewed 2022 paper by Rice University Professor of Economics Richard T. Boylan.
In the past two years, at least 12 small towns have dissolved their departments.
*SNIP*
Goodhue resident Ron Goebel, a retired accountant, said he believes the sheriff’s department will do a good job, but fears the loss of the police department is another challenge for Goodhue and towns like it across the nation.
“As you lose your schools, you lose your businesses and you lose your police force, how much longer can the town actually be viable as a town?” Goebel asked.
(Excerpt) Read more at channel3000.com ...
Goodhue is about 40 miles southeast of Minneapolis.
You said all by design. What is the “design”?
Time to DEPUTIZE the Trump voters and form the POSSE.
The destroy society in order to build it back in their image. Then all this crime goes away.
What did you think “Build Back Better” meant?
That’s gonna be real bad for criminals. Folks outside the urban sprawl have always been ‘prepared’ to defend themselves. 😉
I have always believed that if a real ‘push and shove’ was going to happen over Liberal poor ‘government’, it wouldn’t begin... or EVEN be decided...in the cities.
And then CWII is on.
If police departments were de-militarized, they’d be better positioned to hire officers who aren’t sociopaths and goons.
Bring back Andy and Barney!
Agree.
Already here, to some degree.
Buckle up.
The Nazis had the SS.
The Soviets the KGB.
Mao had the Red Guard.
I'm seeing a pattern.
It’s in Minnesota, where mohamed noor murdered Justine Damond in cold blood and essentially was set free for the murder because the politicians wanted it that way.
The demoralization of police lies with the Left and Leftist legislators.
This is when it started.....
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=9rcIJIWqYmo
The same with nearby Mt. Clemens which got rid of their police dept. back in 2005 and entered into a contract with Macomb County.
Crime is ramping up nationwide, so, obviously the best strategy is to get rid of the police. Makes perfect sense.
Oh no, you're just replacing them with police, answerable to the Federal Government.
I remember back in 1968 the major fear was a Federal Police Force. It was the conspiracy theory of the day.
Yesterday’s conspiracies become tomorrow’s reality.
BS scare story. Here’s the money line:
521 U.S. towns and cities with populations of 1,000 to 200,000 disbanded policing between 1972 and 2017
So over 45 years, 521 small towns disbanded police. 45 YEARS. This ain’t new, it probably actually isn’t scary. And if you work the math on the cities it’ll probably all make sense.
The real problem is when the big cities can no longer find enough applicants.
Next thing you know Pablo, who just crossed the border a month ago, is a cop.
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