[Mpls] City budget

[Dennis Plante]

This may seem like a small issue in comparision to the daunting task 
associated with the necessary upcoming budget cuts facing city 
administrators, however, I think there's a high-level of relevance.  In 
order to achieve spending levels that are in-line with what we can afford, 
we should set the standards higher for the services we continue to provide.

Case in-point.  Yesterday, I called 911 on 3 individuals selling pot at the 
corner of 26th & Knox (big suprise).  Within 5 minutes, a squad arrived.  
Only to find that the 3 individuals in question had changed shirts and 
didn't fit the description I gave to the 911 dispatcher.  The squad slowly 
drove by the individuals, cleared the call (required when they respond) and 
continued onto the next call.  The long and the short of it - The City will 
now have to continue to respond to these individuals (selling drugs), 
because they were astute enough to a) carry a cell phone, and b) have 
someone monitoring a police frequency on the scannner that would call them 
and warn them.  This is an easily correctable issue.  The police have the 
capability to send the call-out silently.

Another case in-point.  One of the "chop-houses" (a place where the dealers 
stash their pot/crack to package it for distribution) is located at the 
southside of the intersection at 26th & Knox.  Our neighborhood agency is in 
the process of setting-up a meeting between the renter, the landlord, the 
neighborhood representative, the SAFE officer and the City Attorney to 
"deal" with the on-going issue.  Why not send the SAFE officer (or the City 
Attorney) out to video-tape the activity prior to the meeting to eliminate 
it?

Recently, I sat in a neigborhood meeting (JACC) where we heard the same 
promises of stepped-up action from our 4th acting (or seated) precinct 
inspector (at the 4th precinct) in the past 5 years.  I don't blame the new 
inspector for not having answers to our issues.  Or, to be able to assure us 
that significant change will occur.  I blame all of us collectively, for not 
looking at (and accepting) our failures in the past, and correcting our 
activities/actions in an attempt to bring about significant and positive 
change.  As a community, by a show of hands, we showed a unanimous support 
for both the introduction of foot patrols and the enforcement of the curfew 
law in our neighborhood as a way of curbing crime (I still have a 4" knife 
in my kitchen drawer from the last gathering of 30 or so youths from in 
front of my house at midnight no too long ago) .  Apparently, even though we 
live in this neighborhood, we don't have a good read on what needs to be 
done.  As neither request will end-up being implemented.  Why not let a 
community have more of a voice in the type of police prtection it wants?  If 
they're wrong, who do they have to blame?  Taking a reactive approach to 
crime is NOT working.  It needs to become more proactive.  It'll become much 
easier to face budget cuts if we choose this path.

We should expect more and pay less.  It's up to us to become smarter and 
more thirfty.

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