Over the weekend the Chief of the Louisville Metro Police held a press conference and announced that he has a new plan to cut crime. He unveiled his 32 page strategy which is the culmination of yet another ?paid? study by outside consultants. I wonder, ?Do people from Louisville go to other cities and ?advise? on the best way to run other cities?? Is that the prerequisite to being a consultant? Sign me up! I?ll get to travel to strange and exotic places and get paid to tell you how bad you are screwing up and how I think you can improve yourself. I understand that this survey was the results of telephone interviews, boy that's scientific!
Traffic deaths are up, way up over last year's figures, but if the plan only calls for a 3% reduction then we must settle for mediocrity and accept the fact that people are going to continue to die at an alarming rate on our streets.
Don't get me wrong, not all of his ideas are bad. I like the idea of a telephone reporting unit. We have only been asking for one of these for 15 years. The desk clerks in the districts have been taking reports for a number of years already, but if we can have a group of civilians that can take some of the heat off the Beat Cops so that they can make priority runs rather than taking a minor offense report, then I am all for it.It seems that Chief White has a magic 8-Ball and that his proposition will automatically reduce violent crime, property crime and traffic deaths by 3 % and improve minority recruitment by 5%. I would like to point out that based on last years figures, we have already surpassed last years homicide rate at this time and a conservative estimate would put us at about an 8% increase in homicides from last year's figures by the end of the year. So our goal is to accept a 5% increase every year in homicides? This really perplexes me
FOP President Richard Dotson is skeptical of this also. President Dotson is concerned about Officer trying to meet goals while working in a department with 115 vacancies. President Dotson stated ?How do you go out here with fewer people and try to reduce crime and increase stats when you have no one to carry the overflow?? He also stated that ?It's very difficult to meet any changes of guidelines when you have a change in personnel.?Of course Chief White was quick to say that ?Vacancies are an excuse? and 'something that all departments struggle with.? (At least he didn't use the term "a crock of crap" again.) If Chief White thinks that vacancies and lack of Police Officers on the street are not a significant factor then he is sadly mistaken. He keeps insisting that these vacancies and retirements are not tied into any of his decisions but simply something that was destined to happen. Instead of chasing off the veteran officers, you need to work on keeping them.You cannot put experience on a 3? by 5 ?card. You can't replace the gut instincts of a veteran Beat Cop with a power point presentation.
Louisville Metro has seen a huge increase this year in violent crimes. You must ask yourself, ?WHY?? You cannot rely on a new study or poll to provide you with answers every time things don't go the way you planned it. You have to let common sense take over at some point. You cannot reduce crime if you do not have enough Officers on the street! You have to maintain the level of Officers that is authorized and hire to offset vacancies immediately. You must also be willing to accept the responsibility when you make mistakes. Don't try and fool the citizen's of Louisville with a new ?magic remedy? to sooth their pain. The only thing that will stop criminals is having good dedicated Police Officers on the street working with the Community to put criminals behind bars!