Let’s talk about gangs and crime, and doing something about it that is positively actionable and usefully functional.
We all know that on the Aug. 4 ballot is a proposal for a three-eighths of a cent sales tax to be used entirety for the police to fund the addition of 42 officers, a process that would start in January.
On May 26, the Citizens Alternative Crime Task Force met at McCoy Park. On the agenda were a Blue Springs police gang task force specialist, and four of our best and brightest of the same from the Independence police, along with the director of community programs for the Mattie Rhodes Center in northeast Kansas City who is also a former Justice Department consultant on Latino gangs. Citizens also participated.
Much critical information was shared, as well as several program proposals, one of which everyone present seemed pretty positive about. But – and now here is where you will really want to pay attention – as one expert on the panel stated, this would be really great, except when implemented and there are not enough officers employed by the department to participate as needed.
It is kind of like going to war but having no one on your side who can come: victory to the enemy by default. We can have all the brilliant and creative programs we want, but if we do not equip our side with enough soldiers to finish the battle plan, it is a hollow paper victory that falls into defeat in reality.
So now let’s do some real math. We have roughly 110,000 people in Independence. We have, according to the police, 12 patrol officers on every shift. So that’s one police officer out there for every 9,166 citizens. That, friends and neighbors, is a gang-banger’s dream scenario. How would you like to directly and interactively have to supervise that many people every day on your job? And likely for a lot lower salary than you currently enjoy? With lots of that number shooting at you?
The real math for the new numbers if we pass the sales tax this summer: 16 patrol officers out there on every shift. That’s one officer out there for every 6,875 citizens. OK, still not the best numbers, but that cuts a whole third of the problem of a grossly uneven ratio out of there. I just do not see not doing this, when the numbers are crunched.
