It was an illuminating evening for those of us who were able to make it to the FOP forum at Destinations on Thursday. It's regrettable that more New Albanians weren't able to attend.
I learned more in 3 1/2 hours (edited from the original 2 1/2 hours) with our city cops than at any other public event I've attended in this town. There was simply too much information to relate here, but if another forum is scheduled, I urge you to make the time for it.
There was nothing condescending or shallow about the presentation. There were no tips for foiling burglars, no reminders to support the neighborhood crime watch. This was a critical diagnosis of the state of law enforcement in New Albany and a studied exposition of some of the means and methods at our disposal to correct the problems.
That's right. Problems. The politic way to discuss such things is to first euphemize them. Problems become "concerns." Challenges become "opportunities."
Your local police officers have lifted the veil and decided that perhaps "we" don't know all the things "they" know. A few citizens have taken the time to find these things out, but as a general rule, the public (and their representatives) have remained ignorant of what can only be called an existential crisis for our city.
If you care about it, if you believe you should know about it, watch for other such opportunities. I'm sure there will be others.
Interestingly, not one member of the city council was able to attend the forum. But those who did will surely be asking their representatives two questions: Do you know about this? and What are you going to do about it?
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Well, on the other hand... Wait, in this particular case, there is no other hand. The FOP members(4 of them)took their own time to come and speak forthright about their concerns for NA from their perspective. Not once(repeat NOT ONCE)did I hear "We need more pay". Instead there was a great breakdown on staffing issues and how it affects their ability to their job--which is the job we hire them to do.
How to pay for the increased staff? That was the question that kept running through my mind. They had an answer, IMHO, a superb answer. My terminology is probably wrong but it entails "asset" confiscation. Basically it involves confiscating the money and/or other assets in drug dealing and related crimes. If memory serves, 80% confiscated would come back the NA Police Department. Scenario: Catch a drug dealer with $200,000 cash and the department will get $160,000.
Why they are not able to do this now was the point of the discussion last night.
I'm sure Highwayman will have more details on his blog. No doubt Shadow5 will also. I'm a bottom line kinda guy and this is my report.
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