Help is Not on the Way!

Dear Neighbors,

With the failure of the Veterans Jobs Act we will not be applying for Federal Grants for police, fire, and first responders.  This means we have to maximize the people we do have and pay through or real estate tax for additional staff. We are down 20 police officers and 14 fire fighters.  Mayor McGlynn needs to lead with the following plan:

We as taxpayers are more likely to allow our taxes to go up if we know we are getting the most for our money.  Currently, police and fire work the 911 system which, could be done by civilians freeing police and fire onto the streets.  And our police officers are doing too many details, that are exhausting them.  These system changes are inevitable, we can either design them now in pre-crisis mode or be hit upside the head with them later (and later will come).  

The last thing we need is to have burnt out police officers on the street.  If we want them to take care of us then we need to take care of them.  There’s going to have to be some give and take in the talks between city officials and the unions.  We need to increase their numbers and give them all the tools they need for the job.  But in return we need to ask them to give up details (which I knwo are their bread and butter), it tires them out for their day jobs.  I suggest we offer to increase their base salery by $10,000/yr to make giving up these money-making details more paletable for them.  Cameras and the privatization of security in high-end condo buildings and stores are already happening, technology will change the need for them to stand infront of a store door anyway.  Using expensive police officers for traffic cops is not the best use of their time (and it must wear them down to stand there for 4 hours at a time).  We need fresh and alert officers able to handle their regular patrols and the dangers they face everyday as they try and enforce the laws of this city.  I would also add more training and education under state police practices for events like crowd control, gun violence, domestic violence, and the productive use of technology.  We need to encourage professional growth by paying them 50% of their pay for the class or training.  We need to give them constant continued education in all the changes our society is going through, criminally and psychologically.  Otherwise, they self-medicate or take it out on their families in the form of violence, themselves (and who's going to police the police).  Police officers are not machines and we need to treat them with respect so that their judgement can remain accurate.  Police in return need to think differently and get out of the old mold of Medford's 20th century structure.  And in return we add 6 new police officers and 6 new firefighters to their roles - we bond it if we have too.  We bonded $500,000 for sidewalks and stump removal.  The city is considering bonding $8 million for a parking garage and $2.5 million for refurbrishing the Brooks estates and these are non-esential city responsibilities.  Be careful what you don't pay for, it could come back to haunt you.

Medford also has to figure out how to make up the 15% lose of revenue from details.  There is no question that our police and fire departments will cost us more, but the cost for not making these changes has a higher price.  If you don’t value them now, help will not be on the way.  Think for a minute if we did not have one police officer in Medford.  Do you think everyone would just play nice together?  What would happen without the fire department if your kid if he had an asthma attack - and no one came!  We need them whether we like it or not.  And we have to pay for them whether we like too or not. 

Respectfully,

Jeanne Martin