 |
|
July 09, 2009
Massive Cuts to Sheriff’s Department Puts Public Safety At Risk
Dear SSD K9 Supporters, The mission of the Sacramento Sheriff K9 Association is to provide the best possible care for our retired K9 partners. However, I can no longer remain silent and watch the law enforcement patrol resources crumble around me without making every attempt to inform the citizens of Sacramento County how this will affect public safety, and officer safety. So I will use this website and forum outside of its original purpose to help inform you of what lies ahead. First and foremost, these are not scare tactics. I am a father to 3 young girls, a husband, a son, a tax payer, and a citizen. I have the unique perspective being a Deputy Sheriff knowing how these cuts will be devastating to providing public safety in Sacramento County. I approach my job as does every other Deputy Sheriff in patrol with a sense of belonging to the neighborhoods they patrol. We approach public safety as if our families lived in the neighborhoods we patrol and as if we lived in them ourselves. We can not adequately provide the service and protection needed with the cuts that are taking effect as we speak. The safety of every Deputy Sheriff will be compromised. Our partners will be spread so thin across such a vast area that our ability to respond to each others aid will be affected. We need every Deputy Sheriff to go home at the end of their shift in one piece. I have three little girls waiting for me every morning at the end of my shift asking how many bad guys my K9 partner Jesse and I caught during the night. This is not about feeling sorry for Deputy Sheriff’s having to deal with a bad economy. That problem is affecting many hardworking, law abiding citizens. We all are feeling the pain of falling home values and spouses taking pay cuts. This is about public safety, law and order, and the basic foundation of any community. Hopefully you will take the time to inform yourself and make your opinion heard by contacting the County Board of Supervisors and tell them to put public safety first. You will find contact information for each and every Board of Supervisor below at the end of the SCDSA press release. More information can be found at www.SCDSA.org. Respectfully, Deputy Brian Amos & K9 Jesse PRESS RELEASE - Sacramento County Deputy Sheriff’s Association SCDSA.org Massive Cuts to Sheriff’s Department Puts Public Safety At Risk Crisis Is Imminent With Over 500 Deputies Slotted for Layoffs and Severe Downsizing Sacramento, CA – July 9, 2009 – Come August 1, 2009, massive cuts to the Sheriff’s Department will put every citizen and business of Sacramento County in imminent danger. The Sacramento County Sheriff’s Department has been forced to absorb nearly $57 million or 30% of the County of Sacramento’s $180 million budget deficit this year yet the Sheriff’s Department only accounts for approximately 7% of the County’s budget. The Sacramento County Deputy Sheriffs’ Association saved the County and Department approximately $10.5M for the 2009/10 fiscal year with wage concessions but even with that, the Sheriff’s Department will layoff over 210 full time deputy sheriffs and another 400 part time deputy sheriffs. Proactive law enforcement will cease to exist as patrol staffing levels will be reduced to pre-1970’s levels with 10 patrol cars responding to 911 calls for service in the entire unincorporated area of the County, with crime at 2009 levels. Problem Oriented Policing (POP), SWAT, Gang Suppression, Narcotics Detectives and Crime Scene Investigations will be severely reduced with the helicopter unit eliminated causing an increase in hard core crime. What puts this into perspective even more is that fact that criminals are taking notice and talking about it. A recently released inmate was quoted on KCRA.com as saying,
We are urging every citizen that lives or works in Sacramento County to make your voice heard today. If you want to feel safe at home or work, you need to act now and call your County Supervisor today. Tell them to reject the massive and devastating cuts to public safety. Your safety and your family’s and friends safety is at risk if you don’t act now. Urge your County Supervisors to vote no on any cuts to law enforcement. District 1: Roger Dickinson | (916) 874-5485 District 2: Jimmie Yee | (916) 874-5481 District 3: Susan Peters | (916) 874-5471 District 4: Roberta MacGlashan | (916) 874-5491 District 5: Don Nottoli | (916) 874-5465
Come have your voice heard! Tell your Board of Supervisors that your safety matters and help keep Sacramento County a thriving place to live and work!
WHERE:
Sacramento County Deputy Sheriffs’ Association 
Visitor comments
"Sacramento, CA – July 9, 2009 – Come August 1, 2009, massive cuts to the Sheriff’s Department will put every citizen and business of Sacramento County in imminent danger.Proactive law enforcement will cease to exist as patrol staffing levels will be reduced to pre-1970’s levels with 10 patrol cars responding to 911 calls for service in the entire unincorporated area of the County, with crime at 2009 levels. Problem Oriented Policing , SWAT, Gang Suppression, Narcotics Detectives and Crime Scene Investigations will be severely reduced with the helicopter unit eliminated causing an increase in hard core crime.<a href="http://www.hobby-estore.com/">rc helicopters</a>" ->By rc helicopters on December 17, 2009 - 05:12
"Thanks Brian, keep up the fight!"
->By Andrew Croley on July 12, 2009 - 12:07
"Great letter Andrew. You have done your homework! Your letter puts this all in great perspective with the dollars and cents clear as day. Thank you for posting it. I'm going to post this as its own news story so people can use the email feature to spread it around to family and friends.Thanks Andrew" ->By Brian Amos on July 12, 2009 - 12:07
"My letter to the Board of Supervisors, feel free to tweek the first paragraph to fit your personal info, print and mail (or email) a copy with your name on it:Date 7/12/2009 Honorable Supervisors 700 H Street, Suite 2450 Sacramento, CA 95814 Dear Supervisors, I am a hard working tax paying citizen. Since I was 15 years old, I have never gone without one to three jobs. I work, commute, shop, invest, and socialize in Sacramento County. I am a member of several community groups, and I have even walked door to door in one of your political campaigns to help get one of you elected. I am active in the community and although I do not live in Sacramento County, I have influence with copious voters who do. After educating myself on the Sacramento County budget of $5.3 Billion for 2008-09, and the deficit in the 2009-10 budget, I am appalled that any one of you think and say that you put public safety first on your priority list, because your actions do not support your words. The entire budget for Law and Order in Sacramento County is a mere 16%, including all courts, probation, sheriff, jails, etc. Without proper law and order, a strong economic community can not survive and prosper. It is no coincidence that so many major retailers have flourished in surrounding Placer County, Roseville specifically, with a much smaller population base. Those retailers specifically skipped the larger customer base of Sacramento County due to public safety. Sacramento County residents commute out of Sacramento to shop in other counties for these reasons. I see it first hand, every day. The fact that Sacramento County can not contend with a 4% budget deficit without laying off 1000 employees and such harsh cuts to fundamental county services is disheartening. The reality that you cut retiree health payments to former employees who spent their lives working in and for Sacramento County, yet hand out $385 million in welfare payments each year is appalling. Cutting employee benefits while spending $120+ Million on mental health (pages 10-12; Non-71J) contracts is appalling. Spending $8.6 Million for narcotic replacement therapy contracts (page 12; Non-71J) while laying-off an additional 70 deputies is absurd. Sacramento County Spent $900 Million for airport projects only to have major airline carriers pull out of Sacramento International. That you spend one penny on golf courses while cutting criminal justice programs is appalling. That we are the capital of the 8th largest economy (California) in the world yet can not provide a safe community is appalling. We should be the model for the US, and therefore the world, yet we are far from it. Sacramento County should have the best trained, most professional, highest paid and most sought after law enforcement officers in the world. Instead we are losing officers due to fiscal mismanagement, lack of career development and training, and of course, your budget cuts. The thought of taking 32% of the deficit, $57 Million from the sheriff’s department alone is absurd. Cutting from the probation department forcing them to close juvenile detention facilities and release convicts is a failure on your part. That act alone released 45 convicted burglars, robbers, and gangsters back on the streets; and they will re-offend. Make cuts across the board, stop exceeding welfare mandates, cut social programs and hold the public responsible for their own futures which they can control. Failing to plan is planning to fail. Stop enabling people to fail by enabling them to slide through life without work, on the dime of the working taxpayers. You can lead them to water, stop drinking for them. Your number one function is to provide a SAFE community where people can live free from crime and oppression. Providing the public with a safe community means funding your law and order resources as your top funding priority, always! The DA’s office should never have to chose whether to prosecute a crime or not due to their budget cuts. Enable them to prosecute all crimes. The sheriff’s department should never have to chose which crimes to investigate or not due to their budget cuts. Enable them to investigate all crimes. Trust me, I’ll sacrifice with a few potholes in the road. I’m ok with someone being required to work for a living. I’m ok with tent city jails and giving them bologna sandwiches, pink underwear, and making them pay for their healthcare. I’m ok with a 6-month limit on welfare and any aid program. That’s what non-profit community groups are for, to give aid where the government can not. Any good non-profit operates with a 15% or less administrative overhead. The United Way operates with less than a 12% administrative budget. The American Red Cross operates with a 10% administrative budget. How come the Sacramento County Human Assistance Administration costs 41% of their staggering $656 Million budget? ($270 Million in Admin, with 2,156 employees, $385 Million in Aid payments; Page 7, 2008-09 Budget Overview) Fundamental government services do NOT include paying anyone to sit at home all day. It does not include paying someone to take care of their own family member (IHSS - $63 Million; Page 7, 2008-09 Budget Overview). That is their family’s and their local community’s responsibility, not the government’s. Roll back the calendar 100 years and see what services the government provided. Can we do better than that? Of course. Is that our primary function? No. 100 years ago there was a county sheriff to round up the criminals, hold and present him for trial before a magistrate, and hang him in the streets if ordered by the magistrate. There was a military to provide national security; little else was required of the government. There was no In-Home Support Services, no county welfare, and no social programs enabling people to take from their neighbors without working their share. It was up to local communities, individuals, and churches to distribute aid and it worked. It didn’t foster generations of people who take and give nothing back. It didn’t foster generations of people who vote based on how many government handouts would be approved. Sacramento County Chief Executive Officer, Terry Schutten, has done you no favors in his recommendations for budget approvals. Cutting public safety, the district attorney, probation, and the sheriff’s department specifically will have tragic consequences on public safety, and ultimately also on your political careers. If you cut the sheriff’s budget by a staggering 30+ percent of the budget deficit, forcing the layoff of deputies, I will work tirelessly to inform your voting public of your choice to put their safety in jeopardy, and encourage others to do the same. I’m sure there is a community member out there who would like your job. I will work tirelessly to ensure you are not elected to ANY public office, because you have lost the public trust granted to you by your elected office. Every bit of the budget process is a political choice at the state, federal and local level. What choice will you make? Thank You. Sincerely, Andrew Croley" ->By Andrew Croley on July 12, 2009 - 10:07
"Great article B!!"
->By shane on July 12, 2009 - 12:07
"I used to be a Reserve Deputy Sheriff for Sacramento County. I know that since I've been gone and living in Oregon that the crime has trippled. We need our Deputies to continue working and helping our citizens of Sac. County. I know there is an economy problem, but if you cut some of these officers, the crime will get worse. There has got to be another solution. Keep our Deputies working and to take care of our citizens."
->By Kathy Willett on July 10, 2009 - 10:07
"Brian, you have the right to address this concern on the SSD K-9 website. The cuts facing law enfocement and specifiaclly the Sacramento Sheriff's Department are a critical issue needing to be addressed in any and every forum. These cuts will decrease the ability for patrol to respond. This is critical to the safety and quality of life to Sacramento County residents.Equally disheartening is the large numbers of dedicated law enforcement employees who will soon find themselves joining the millions of unemployed. I feel horrible for these employees facing lay-off. Their situation makes demotions and re-assignments from specialty units seem small at best. The cause is simple. The County of Sacramento failed to prepare for the hard financial times. They knew these days were coming and had spoke of the economic fallout of the economy over a year ago. The County Board of Supervisors failed to prepare. The management of the Sheriff's Department failed to prepare. Now the financial crisis is here, they find themelves unable to find reasonable sollutions to the budget gap and sit and pray that they will receive federal stimulus money. Instead they are using cuts to reduce the budget of the Sheriff's Department to a point that the first responders, trained and experienced investigators and many other areas of law enforcement are soon to be drastically reduced or eliminated. Criminals will celebrate and law abiding, tax paying, hard working citizens will suffer. The safety of the community being served by the Sheriff's Department is at risk. The Board of Supervisors are naive or not concerned to the effects of these cuts. The unincorperated area of Sacramento County could turn into a scene out of the movie "Mad Max." I encourage all residents to voice their concern about reduced staffing levels. Reductions that will in no doubt place their safety at risk to a group of criminals who are anxiously awaiting these cuts." ->By Brad on July 10, 2009 - 10:07
"I am a former officer and worked k9 and these are hard times and share the same concerns I worked in a smaller town were were had auxillary fireman and police officers who were POST certified and Firefighters certified Firefighter 1.These men and women many not all did not want to be full time officers and wanted to give to there community and yes others were using it to get a foot in the door but as a whole we hired the best of these people who proved themselves and recieved 200,00 a year for uniforms but provided far more for events, traffic control and other assignments full time paid officers would complain about and gave us two person units and the had probationary periods so you could dump a volunteer just like a new hire. Now I know I wont make any friends with my thoughts and dont care but the regular officers feared they could be replaced and others commented on insurance issues and we lost this free help. We need a unique answer to solve this problem the goal should be first officer safety, having a double unit with a qualified person as I stated above, and then the public I wanted to go home every night and I have lost friends more then three while on duty and another in a freak SWAT training incident. We do not need new cars every year or the best cars or tricked out units, I use to own a communication company and 700 & 800 mghz radios are unreliable to expensive require more repeater locations which is more money motorola loves it but if you understand the physics behind signal propogation or have been a HAM radio person you understand. Lets not jump up and down wasting time complaining thats makes us as useless as they can be but present some solutions that are realistic I am not saying mine are great but with enough thought from the people that actually are doing the job who knows what can work so lets not bombard a political machine that broke our deparments they already know that officer safetey is compromised we need to hit them with positive actual workable ideas because if we dont take the lead they will start chopping where it really hurts they may look at removing other things like K9, bike patrol,helicopters (many departments across the country have cut k9 and helicopter divisions) which is wrong because they are not on the street. I also feel to take these polical people out on a ride alongs make them see what it is like and no one nighters make them spend a week on graveyard shift or swing shift for 5 days make sure its a friday and Saturday and let them hear the poblic say I called 2 hours ago or I pay your salary well my comment was you better dig deeper because I had to deal with your dumb ass so I cant be doing something important. So right or wrong we all want to be safe I hate the political machine they want our support during the election time and the cut our throats when we need there help so I support no one and I make donations to as many departments as I can and once I start seeing or hearing more stupidity then contstructive stuff then I will not send money there are teams that appreciate the money." ->By Jim on July 10, 2009 - 08:07
"I agree we here in south sac need our sheriff;s units and K 9 s here they cut them now they pay 3time s more later just to this area back together again but how many criminals well get away with what ever they do and will or how many older folks will suffer has any one given that some thougth or do we just wait till they get HURT OK PANEL THINK ABOUT THIS thanks jjakc@att.net"
->By john shelby contreras on July 10, 2009 - 04:07
"The safety of our law enforcement officers and the public is of the utmost importance to me. I am a neighborhood watch leader, and therefore know and deal with crimes in my neighborhood on a regular basis. I also am very involved in many aspects of law enforcement including doing ridealongs with many L.E. agencies, and I see first hand some of what officers face on a daily basis. Officer back up and assistance can make the critical difference when an officer is confronting one or more criminal adversaries, and in an emergency, seconds can make a difference between life and death. I do not want any of our law enforcement personnel laid off. Find another way to balance the budget that is not jeopardizing precious lives. Barbara Price"
->By Barbara on July 10, 2009 - 02:07
"You're completely right Brian. I think too many people are taking this whole thing to lightly. Just now am I viewing things related to our current situation. We should have been fighting and pushing the Board a long time ago. Shame on us for sitting back and not standing up and making our voices heard."
->By Darrell on July 10, 2009 - 12:07
"It is extremely disheartening to learn that the Sheriff's department will need to cut back so much. At the same time, this presents yet another reason why Sheriff McGinness should re-evaluate his restrictive policy on concealed weapons permit issuance to responsible, law-abiding citizens. As stated in the press release, criminals know that law enforcement response times will increase, allowing a longer window of opportunity to victimize unarmed citizens. If Sheriff McGinness is truly concerned about the public's safety, he should allow trained, law-abiding citizens the opportunity to defend themselves responsibly against unlawful assault by violent criminals."
->By Concerned and disarmed on July 10, 2009 - 11:07
Send To A Friend
|
|
|
|
     |
Join the SSDK9.com Mailing List to be notified of website updates.
If you have any questions, concerns or complaints regarding our policies please contact us at abuse@ssdk9.org
View our Privacy Policy
