On Tuesday, Jan. 11 at 10:00 a.m., at the Devonshire Senior Center located at 2802 E. Devonshire, the city held the first of several community budget meetings open to the general public for the purpose of discussing impending budget cuts. It is estimated that there were over 500 people in attendance with 127 citizen requests to address the assembled group.
Require the prior.org president Ann Malone spoke to the assembled group and presented a report titled “Systemic Problems & Budget Neutral Solutions for the Jail Booking Process.” Ann’s organization represents 185 businesses, over 4500 homeowners, and is closely affiliated with NAILEM.
Ann publicly spoke in support of rank and file police officers. Among the points made by Ann were:
- We cannot balance the budget on the backs of the street level employees and that budget cuts should be started from the top down.
- In agreement with other presenters it was reiterated that budget cuts should not come at a cost to seniors who have invested the most, or children who are our future.
- The budget cannot be balanced on the backs of our front line officers and that it is completely unacceptable to treat officers the same as other city employees “until those employees are willing to take a bullet for my child.”
- Since we do have such a shortage of police on the streets, it is time to get police officers out of the jail and back in our neighborhoods.
Ann presented a report that shows how the city can accomplish this in a budget neutral way and includes a half million dollars in financial incentives through concessions from MCSO and the added benefit of having officers on the street where they belong.
CLICK HERE to read the report on proposed solutions for the jail booking process submitted by the Indian School Corridor – Citywide Association. (Note: the actual report is contained in the first 5 pages and the remaining 50 pages are supporting documentation.)
CLICK HERE to read a recent Wall Street Journal article regarding budget cuts and police.