Safety and security of the populace is the first job of good government.
When we are not “secure in our person and property,” we live in fear. And fear is not an American value and certainly not tolerated by free and successful people.
If we must worry about what happens to our property and family when we go to sleep, go to work or drop them off at school, something must change.
In business and industry, when someone gets hurt, everything stops until that person is helped, hurried to the hospital or sent home to heal. It is only at that point, that the work and the wheels of business can start turning again.
That is why your Tate Record looks with concern at recent plans of our city to cut police funding and meddle in the police department.
As has been pointed out in an article on Page One of today’s Tate Record, there are dedicated funds that are not linked to tax dollars that can’t and shouldn’t be cut from the city’s police budget.
We will add that allowing a police officer to carry a car home might help him get to your house in the middle of the night just in time to stop a crime or help you most when seconds count. Police also respond to those calls driving very fast and they might be inclined to drive a little slower if it’s their personal vehicle.
Your Tate Record also supports the idea of training for our police and fire department. When things get “hot” in that line of work, training can be the difference in life or death for a citizen or a city employee.
We hope voters realize defunding the police is not the way to cut taxes. History and headlines of the past few years have shown that to be a road to ruin and the first step in good communities becoming less than the best.
There is value in having the ability to hire good people who want to live here and want to be our neighbors. So how much should we pay men and women who are honest and hard workers, and are willing to strap on a badge and gun or run into a burning building to help us live safe and secure?
That is a big decision for our city to make.
We urge City Hall and our county board, too, to pay these employees what our city and county can afford and let them do their job.
Safety is truly job one.
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