Mr. Kevin Vericker courageously pointed out in his blog that the police department is 67% of the North Bay Village city budget. In retrospect we need to give credit to one of our hero residents Mr. Max Crown for repeatedly questioning the 67% police department share of the budget. Mr. Crown in numerous occasions has asked the commission to look into this matter further.
In all fairness Chief Robert Daniels is doing a great job and has a deep understanding of the budget issues facing North Bay Village. However, this is not about Chief Daniels’ abilities or knowledge. In today’s economy just about everyone is being asked to do more with less. This phenomenon also includes the North Bay Village police department.
If the philosophy of “Putting North bay Village First” is applied we can reduce this 67% to a more manageable 55% to 60%. You may be asking yourself, how? Well with today’s technology, cameras and other surveillance equipment, we can reduce patrolling hours allowing for a more efficient and lean police force.
We need to look at the complete police operating budgets line by line; working together with Chief Daniels to see where and how we can tame the police budget beast. It may very well be that in fact 67% for the police department is a necessary percentage of the budget. However, we owe it to the residents of North Bay Village to provide the safest city while not compromising our budget.
Mario Garcia
October 3, 2012
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