Letter: Continue To Fund Public Safety In Hamden

Written by Chris Ruggiero

To the Editor:

As a parent, my number one concern is keeping my children safe, as well as ensuring that the community that they live in is safe as well. It’s important to me to make sure that they are safe playing outside, and come from a safe community.

With that being said, in recent years, I have felt safer than I ever have before. This is in part thanks to the bicycle patrols that the Hamden Police Department has. The simple fact that having an officer patrolling the area is comforting, because I know if I ever need them, they will be there.

Furthermore, I’ve been seeing a lot of change throughout Hamden that have been making our town safer. Last month, we had police officers patrolling and ticketing for distracted driving, which is a major issue. Now, I know that no one likes having to pay a fine for a traffic ticket but, I think it’s effective. After all, once you get a ticket, chances are you’re not going to want to do it again. And, with less people driving distractedly, the safer our roads will become.

Those are just a few instances in which it’s important to have a strong public safety team like Hamden does. I commend and thank the Hamden Police and Department for their continued hard work. Without their presence and programs, these changes wouldn’t be occurring.

As the budget deliberations begin to dwindle -- and department cuts on the horizon -- I do ask one thing. That is to continuing our strong public safety team. As a resident, it’s important to me to keep our taxes low. After all, I have a family that I need to put a roof over their heads. However, at the same time, it’s also important to be safe. Imagine a world without firefighters and police officers. It wouldn’t be a safe one, now would it?

Therefore, I cannot stress the importance of doing whatever we need to do to keep Hamden at its safest.

Sincerely,

Chris Ruggiero

Have your voice heard! Email your Letter to the Editor to vincent.salzo@patch.com.