Today’s newspaper has a heavier-than-normal focus on our local Police Department because there have been some developments on a number of fronts that involve our local cops.
On page 8 we learn that the police have been busy. Crime is up – due, officers say, to the fact that we have more habitual lawbreakers on the streets right now due to releases from incarceration. It’s also probably due to the economy. When people are jobless, they sometimes do things they shouldn’t and wouldn’t if they were gainfully employed.
The economic doldrums we continue to experience are the big green monster in the cupboard when it comes to two other articles, both on page 1, which report the progress of negotiations between the city and the police union, and the elimination of the school resource officer position.
It appears that things are at an impasse between negotiators for the police employees union and city as they try to settle a new contract for our officers. The union’s negotiator says our cops are poorly paid, compared to other comparable communities, and he’s trying to right that wrong.
The union’s position is that local officers are paid approximately 10 percent less than those in communities such as Stayton, Prineville, Lebanon and coastal cities that are about Sweet Home’s size. Dispatchers make about 13 percent less than those comparable cities that actually have their own dispatchers.
The city doesn’t disagree that its officers are paid less. It simply says it can’t afford to pay more.
It appears everybody recognizes the problem here: Sweet Home is still a largely timber-based economy and the timber industry is in the doldrums. Linn County unemployment is still in the 13 percent range, and businesses that haven’t had to cut actual employees have, in some cases, been forced to cut back on hours. Times are really tough right now.
And that’s the unfortunate reality here: While our police officers may deserve better, we can’t afford better.
The other story on the front page that pertains to this issue is the sad news that the school resource officer is being transferred back to regular street duty.
The Police Department says it can’t afford to keep the SRO on campuses when it is likely losing another officer – to a higher-paying job in Albany – and it’s expecting at a $200,000 shortfall in property tax revenue this year. The city has already had to assume all of the school district’s 50 percent share of funding the position on its own this year because of the district’s own financial distress. And now, things are starting to look a bit grimmer for the city as well (page 2).
Losing the SRO is a bummer for all of us. People in a position to know have attested with fervor that the SRO has made a difference in student behavior. Sure, there are still kids doing things they shouldn’t, but it’s a little less convenient to be bad when there’s a uniformed police officer strolling down the hall toward you.
Restoring the SRO should be a top priority for both the city and the district. It’s not only a restraint on potential problems now but it’s an investment for the future because the SRO helps youngsters understand what it means to be responsible and to respect legitimate authority – something too many are not getting at home.
That brings us back to the police in general. Here at The New Era we keep pretty close tabs on the activities of our local cops and, to a lesser extent, the Sheriff’s deputies. We follow a lot of their activities and we listen to them talk.
Our officers have a difficult job. Far too much of their time is spent dealing with adults who apparently can’t control themselves.
Multiple times each week our police intervene in arguments between screaming adults or between parents and their children, check on people who haven’t been seen or aren’t responding to phone calls, counsel people on their legal options in disputes over property, trespass people from places where they’re not desired, deal with animal issues – in addition to ticketing speeders, busting crooks, driving suspects to County Jail, testifying in court, etc. etc. It’s a demanding and, often, dangerous job.
We’re sympathetic to the union’s arguments about pay equity and long hours. But the reality is that times are tough for everyone. It’s tough for our local teachers, who agreed last year to unpaid furlough days in recognition of the economic realities out there. It’s tough for all the folks in our community who don’t have a job – period.
Nobody wants to shortchange public employees who work hard to provide necessary service to the community