Update ! .... Stabbing,Thugs,Blood, ... Relief?
Word has it that relief may be on the way.
The decision to transfer the Fort Lauderdale Police Street Crimes Unit back into Patrol has been reversed!
You'll remember that the new Police Chief, Frank Adderley, created the powerful Special Force to turn back rising crime rates and nagging street crimes. Adderley knew how productive those teams could be, as he was a Special Team member himself, back in the day.... see below!
Adderley, with former Chief McCarthy (in street clothes) behind him
But a new City Commission, with a mission to cut government spending, sent City Officials scrambling for ways to cut, and it nearly nixed the cost-effective squad.
Street crimes lurched forward, and neighborhoods from SR 84 to Wilton Manors began to feel the pain - and complain!
Chief Adderley says the Unit is back in action - bad guys beware!
The decision to transfer the Fort Lauderdale Police Street Crimes Unit back into Patrol has been reversed!
You'll remember that the new Police Chief, Frank Adderley, created the powerful Special Force to turn back rising crime rates and nagging street crimes. Adderley knew how productive those teams could be, as he was a Special Team member himself, back in the day.... see below!
Adderley, with former Chief McCarthy (in street clothes) behind him
But a new City Commission, with a mission to cut government spending, sent City Officials scrambling for ways to cut, and it nearly nixed the cost-effective squad.
Street crimes lurched forward, and neighborhoods from SR 84 to Wilton Manors began to feel the pain - and complain!
Chief Adderley says the Unit is back in action - bad guys beware!
Our new City Commission is on a mission to cut government spending.
However, as the Mayor, I can tell you that no member of our new City Commission has ever directed, suggested, or recommended in any public meeting that we cut funding for the successful new Fort Lauderdale Police Street Crimes Unit. In fact, I do not support, and will not support, any budgetary action that reduces funding for our Fort Lauderdale Police Street Crimes Unit, and I believe that the other Commissioners agree with me. As you know, "when the economy goes south, crime goes north" and now, more than ever, we need to properly fund law enforcement, public safety, and crime-fighting measures.
I am very proud of, and impressed by, the work accomplished by the Fort Lauderdale Police Street Crimes Unit, and I thank those men and women for their outstanding efforts on behalf of our community.
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I think the Mayor and the new Commission have been clear in the plan to protect public safety - however - it was told that the City Manager cut that department and the overtime funds as well - again creating an understaffing and availability.
The Police Department should be making the operational decisions and allocating resources...just as the Mayor and Commission have implied...maybe that is a message that is better delivered to the Manager.
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I believe you're right this smells like the City Manager King George Gretsas, the sooner he understands we have a new Commission the better !!!! I would prefer the City Manager be fired or maybe do me a favor a Quit.
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Even for Jack Seiler, this is one of the dumbest public statements I have ever seen.
We are OVER-PAYING our police. When patrolmen make over $100,000, something is terribly wrong.
We need to SLASH these grotesque, bloated salaries and bring the budget in line with reality.
There is no relationship between how much money we spend on law enforcement, and in the level of crime.
More - the police do not prevent crime, or even have a legal responsibility to protect us. They act AFTER-THE-FACT and (sometimes) arrest people, then they record the history of the event in their logs. They are historians, not protectors.
CUT THE SALARIES. CUT THE CAR EXPENSES.
Put the cops on foot, or on bicycles and make them VISIBLE.
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At the Tea Party I can tell you Ft. Lauderdale's street crime unit was the greatest. They were polite, helpful and actually had a heavy presense with out a heavy hand....Mayor you would have been proud of these guys on that day...BSO wasnt as friendly. Not that we were trying to become their best friends but there was an obvious difference in the way the two departments handled its citizens..
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