The Economy & Law Enforcement
Frank Borelli
Editor-in-Chief
Officer.com
In some of the recent articles on Officer.com there have been highlights about the connection between our economy and police work. Steve Ashley discussed how having a lack of funds is not an acceptable excuse for reducing training. Karen Bune has talked about the roles civilians can play in law enforcement and the attached potential savings. Art Femister - religiously, every month - talks about the volunteers who save our law enforcement agencies hundreds of thousands of dollars each year. Depending on which financial pundit you listen to on which television station, you may have heard that the economy isn’t going to recover until 2010… or 2011… or even later than that.
What this really means is that anyone in law enforcement is going to have to face the reality that you will have to buy some of your own officer-survival-oriented gear. Although it pains me to say it I have a feeling the amount of gear the individual officer has to purchase may grow as agencies look for ways to cut back. I anticipate that this is going to impact rural agencies sooner than it will the urban ones.
The other side of this is that crime is already starting to show increases as the economy tanks. So, once again - and anyone who has been in law enforcement long enough will remember this having happened before - you will be asked to do more with less. Here is a poem you should learn:
to do so much
with so little
for so long
we are now qualified
to do anything
with nothing.
A joke? Yes. But one that is potentially deathly serious. Now more than ever it is important to check your gear; maintain it; be confident in it. When you get gifts for your birthday or at Christmas, although it may not make the holidays as enjoyable, make your “wish list” the gear you need to do your job safely.
No matter what the state of the economy is or will become, you still need to go home safe and whole after each shift.
What do you think?
Sounds right on to me. We are beginning to feel the crunch by the appearance of a hiring freeze amidst already scarce sworn personnel. Equipment hasn’t become a serious cutback yet, but coverage has. We may or may not need to purchase more of our own gear, but we are having to sacrifice time by either donating overtime or flexing it out in lieu of taking time and a half overtime pay. Not to mention putting a cap on miles driven in a shift. Sounds like the poem and your article hit the nail on the head.
Chris;
Thanks for the comment. How long do you think it will take before the public becomes aware of the coverage cutbacks and starts to demand “better” service? Such will create some serious problems for the law enforcement industry…
Frank,
Thanks for the feedback. My thought is this, at the risk of sounding pessimistic. In our profession it is very hard for people to see the end result, because the end result is a non-event. Day in and day out it is our jobs to keep life normal for the rest of the public. Our “product”, if you will, is something that does not happen. However, if you consider a social program that hands out food stamps or other assistance, their benefit is a tangeable thing that people can physically touch or see. You can include education in this as well, in the fact that parents can see their child’s progress and development. Also, it’s much easier to move public heartstrings with the photograph of a child in dirty clothes standing in the poverty scene, then put that photograph on a billboard. Instant tax appropriation.
Am I off base here?
We have so many holes to plug, it’s difficult to see how we’re not going to run out of fingers. Hopefully the just announced Justice Assistance Grant will reach you guys in an appropriate manner. Spreading around $2 billion dollars seems like a lot of cash, but when we’re talking about 5000 criminal justice entities, it’s not as bountiful as it seems.
I wrote a light-hearted skif on Pres. Obama’s big plans with this money. The links do lead to good info and if you’re concerned whether your department or your community will be receiving funds and how much, see what you’ve been alloted. And then bang on your local or state politician’s door!!
http://www.criminaljusticeschools.com/blog/here-comes-the-cash-hooray-for-national-criminal-justice-month
Hopefully help is on the way. It’s one thing for teachers to buy their own school supplies (as shabby as that is). It’s another when a cop has to buy his own vest…