Comments on Advance Indiana™: Star Catches On To Budget Shortfall Facing Indianapolis

And the are not paying twice. Paying money to the ...

2010-08-18T18:30:28.912-05:00

And the are not paying twice. Paying money to the city for off duty officers would be paying twice and would be wrong. They are purchasing "security officers" that just happen to be police officers.

Dazed - you and fellow officers are making money f...

2010-08-18T17:26:25.995-05:00

Dazed - you and fellow officers are making money from the City provided equipment and training. Just because you worry that your extra jobs will drop in frequency or dollar amount, is not a good enough reason to void the idea that the taxpayer should be able to recoup some of their investment. Consider it rent, if you like. But, if its good enough to churn some dollars for you, then I think that the taxpayers should get some monetary relief from your off duty use of their equipment.

If you had met many of the security guards who wor...

2010-08-18T16:55:42.367-05:00

If you had met many of the security guards who work for private companies you would know why many places especially apartments in high crime areas want police. As for cost of training and equipment that cost is not doubled when private companies hire off duty officers so complaing about the cost is not a valid argument. As far as the car goes if they took it away the companies would still hire us and I would still work.
As to you not understanding why apartments need police presence more than the normal on duty coverage to prevent crime you obviously have not spent much time in a high crime area. These areas are so busy that on duty officers do not have time to spend guarding properties.so the apartments hire off duty officers to maintain a police presence on their specific property.

Dazed, why should the apartments have to pay twice...

2010-08-18T15:51:25.810-05:00

Dazed, why should the apartments have to pay twice for police protection? Further, why should the taxpayers have to pay for a car that is used for the disproportionate benefit of a private party?

How much crime is prevented by what expenditure in cars, training, uniforms and authority that is used for private benefit? That's the empirical question.

What you're saying is that crime is only reduced when an armed presence is nearby. If that's true, then the economically rational plan is to cancel the police and let private parties contract for their own security.

As a conservative, I'm fine with this, as I've been arguing for this, for years.

Your post merely reinforced my argument.

Cato. What expense are you speaking of? The cost o...

2010-08-18T13:12:37.174-05:00

Cato. What expense are you speaking of? The cost of the equipment that is issued to police officers anyway? Also do you have any idea what you are talking about with crime reduction? Every part time job I gave worked as an officer I have taken runs that would have been dispatched to an on duty officer had I not been there. Also looking at the apartments I work at there gave been no robberies or shootings this summer since off duty police have been staffing the property. Last year they were swamped with robberies. Can you not see how this saves money and man power for the city?

That $30 million per year more than paid for the r...

2010-08-17T11:36:33.791-05:00

That $30 million per year more than paid for the raises. They also went nuts buying vehicles for the police and DPW. And, on a more practical note, they increased the cash balances for public safety without cutting their budgets - while making Parks cut into Parks budgets to improve those balances.

After spending all this money, they claimed there wasn't enough to hire the 100 officers and blamed it on Peterson.

Jon, They needed most of that money they saved jus...

2010-08-17T11:13:54.319-05:00

Jon, They needed most of that money they saved just to pay for the 7% pay raises under the current contract for police and firefighters.

Ooooh, at 9:58, Gary crushes the pitch into the st...

2010-08-17T10:21:17.014-05:00

Ooooh, at 9:58, Gary crushes the pitch into the stands.

So how much money does the city save by the state ...

2010-08-17T10:06:32.184-05:00

So how much money does the city save by the state picking up the police and fire pensions? What did the city do with those dollars?

On take home car privileges, I have a friend who h...

2010-08-17T09:58:51.313-05:00

On take home car privileges, I have a friend who has a company car. His company automatically deducts over $160 a month from his paychecks, plus he has to annually pay income tax on a certain percentage of the value of the car attributed to him as income, which I believe is about $9,000. Frankly, the best way of saving money is to end pensions for all government employees. Let them fund their own retirement funds and rely on social security like the rest of us.

Granted, other cities have done that, and if done ...

2010-08-17T09:41:16.973-05:00

Granted, other cities have done that, and if done correctly it could be a good thing. However I havnt seen our city do much that has come from common sense thinking in recent months. I just have visions of the city taking over the assignments of part time employment where the "good old boy" system would be in full effect, or the city dictating a higher price that businesses are unwilling to pay and deciding to to with Johnny Plastic badge security instead.

On the take home cars, we haven't even taken t...

2010-08-17T09:29:12.199-05:00

On the take home cars, we haven't even taken the first step - which is to figure out how much money the taxpayers are shelling out for the perk.

Give me a break. There is no evidence, whatsoever,...

2010-08-17T09:15:14.819-05:00

Give me a break. There is no evidence, whatsoever, that the cost of an officer having a uniform and car in private employment reduces crime to a value greater than the expense.

Ditto take-home cars. In fact economic studies have shown take-home cars to be an economic dud with no measurable impact on crime, largely because cops earn huge salaries and choose not to live in crime-ridden neighborhoods.

It's long past time to end the failed take-home car policy.

That handout to billionaire Herb Simon is really g...

2010-08-17T09:11:15.510-05:00

That handout to billionaire Herb Simon is really going to bite Ballard in the ass hard. He looked pretty stupid on the news last night trying to explain that he knew the Pacers were trying really hard to clean up their act in the wake of Lance Stephenson's arrest for felony assault this past weekend. The fact is the Pacers send are poor role models for the city's youth, who are committing so many of the crimes we are now experiencing.

Dazed - nobody is banning off duty work.

2010-08-17T08:46:40.122-05:00

Dazed - nobody is banning off duty work.

Nobody is trying to take away the benefit of polic...

2010-08-17T08:41:51.559-05:00

Nobody is trying to take away the benefit of police officers working off-duty security jobs. I am simply saying we should recoup a reasonable amount of money that is being made by the police officers and the private security companies from using taxpayer-funded resources. When other cities have implemented these fees, it has not prevented police officers from working off duty in private security jobs.

Gary, I know the idea of compensation to the city ...

2010-08-17T08:39:51.419-05:00

Gary, I know the idea of compensation to the city for off-duty police work by IMPD and Sheriff's Officers has been bandied about by city officials since Peterson was in office. Maybe this year.... It is a good idea.

You also raised on your blog, as I recall, the refurnishing of Straub's office. Unless it was with used furniture already owned by the city, then there was even more of that famous 'fluff' in the Director of Public Safety's office budget.

Last year the Ballard administration led everyone to think that there was going to be a $30 million shortfall, when in fact, the budget grew by $65 million. So, I'll just wait and see the numbers before I believe if and how much of a shortfall 2011 will bring.

And, lest we forget, just a few weeks ago the CIB was so flush with excess cash that it could afford to promise the Pacers $33.5 million over 3 years. The decisions being made by the Ballard administration certainly seem to be aimed at making a small handful of people even more wealthy, while showing no remorse in making budget cuts that negatively impact the quality of life of most of Indy's residents.

I think you are overlooking the benifit and saving...

2010-08-17T08:30:10.130-05:00

I think you are overlooking the benifit and savings the city receives by officers who are employed by businesses in an off duty security capacity. By employing off duty police officers business eliminate the need for on duty officers to respond to run to that particular business. How many runs for police service are elimnated by off duty officers working in Broadripple? Also many officers work for apartments. These communities require significantly less police services while these off duty officers are working thereby reducing the work load of on duty officers and ultimately saving the city and tax payers money.