Salem Political Snark

Time to take a close look at the Salem Police Department budget

I'm optimistic about the good that is going to come from the nationwide protests against George Floyd's murder by a police officer, since it is long past time that the United States faced up to the injustices people of color have endured at the hands of police for many decades, centuries, really.

But there's another aspect to how our nation looks upon police: we throw a huge amount of money into police department budgets, often with little oversight or analysis into whether this spending is really needed.

In most cities, Salem included, police and fire consume a third to a half or more of a city's general fund budget. (I looked through the City of Salem's most recent budget, but it was so poorly laid out, I gave up on trying to find what percentage of the general fund went to the police department.)

UPDATE: Ace researcher Jim Scheppke, a retired librarian, dug up a summary of the proposed next City of Salem budget that I couldn't find. Here it is, along with some observations Scheppke shared with me. I was correct that police and fire can consume more than half a city's general fund budget. For Salem it is a proposed whopping 59%.

This is from the City Manager’s proposed budget for FY 20-21 which has been approved with no changes by the Citizen Budget Committee. As you can see the SPD gets 33.4% and the SFD gets 25.4% and the other departments get the leftovers. It has been this way for a long time. We have two Cadillac City departments and the rest (with the exception of Public Works — not GF) are Pintos! It’s what happens when you have “public safety is all that really matters" Republicans in charge for 14 years (2003-2017). We haven’t really recovered from that yet.

On MSNBC's All In With Chris Hayes show today, he had a Minneapolis city council member, Steve Fletcher, as a guest to talk about that city's police department. 

Fletcher said that the police union has an outsized influence, which isn't unusual. Historically citizens have looked favorably upon police, and unions can summon a lot of community support when attempts are made to rein in either abuses by police officers or police department budgets.

Here in Salem we're fortunate that the police department appears to be well-managed with few examples of officers acting badly. However, this doesn't mean that the police budget should get just a cursory look. A Marketplace story says:

“In many cities, the only budget item that is not facing massive cuts is the police budgets,” said Andrea Ritchie, who researches the criminal-justice system at Barnard College. “We’re literally in the middle of the biggest economic crisis and the highest levels of unemployment of our generation. We’re in a pandemic without universal affordable health care.”

I'm no expert on police department budgets.

But I was deeply involved in efforts to make sure that a new police department headquarters in Salem was correctly sized and reasonably priced. It turned out that neither was initially the case, so Salem voters wisely rejected the first attempt at passing a bond measure for a new headquarters building.

The lesson I learned from this is that just like every government agency, those in charge of a police department believe that they need more money and other resources than is justified given other needs in a community. 

So it's the job of local elected officials and the public at large to closely examine police budget requests. So far there's little evidence that this has been happening in Salem to the degree that it should be. Hopefully this will change now that the City of Salem is facing a large budget shortfall caused by the COVID-19 crisis and accompanying economic downturn.

Here's some graphics that local activist Jim Scheppke shared recently on Facebook in connection with a post by the Salem Breakfast on Bikes blogger about the new police station and a search for the next police chief. That post included this passage:

More generally, we likely have more sworn officers than we actually need for the amount of serious crime we have, and it might be possible to reconfigure the police force so it better corresponds to the actual mix of calls to which they respond. Adjusting the composition of personnel could also reduce cost and impact to our city budget.

In response to people questioning whether the police department budget should be reduced, Scheppke shared this information. The first captions are his. I've added my own comments in italics.

Comparing 1995 and 2018 Salem's population grew by 46% and crime dropped dramatically according to FBI data (click to enlarge). This is part of a well-known national trend.

Interesting that crimes have dropped while the percentage increase in sworn officers has been markedly below the population increase. Goes to show that there is a tenuous relationship (maybe none at all) between a police department budget and crimes. 

Violent crime has always been low in Salem [and] remains so. The property crime rate is less than half of what it was in 1995.

Of course, some will argue that police officers do more than deal with violent and property crimes. That's true. But a big question is, why can't lower-cost people do those other things?

 

Trump's dictatorial desire was on full display today

Driving home from grocery shopping this afternoon, I listened to CNN reporting on a protest near the White House against George Floyd's murder by a police officer that was happening at the same time Trump was getting ready to give a law-and-order speech in the Rose Garden.

When I got home, I turned on the TV to learn what CNN was saying now -- after federal authorities cleared out the peaceful protesters with tear gas, rubber bullets, and flash-bang explosives half an hour before a Washington D.C. curfew was to go into effect.

Here's a photo of what CNN was reporting.

The caption is accurate, but I don't think it goes far enough.

Yes, Trump walked over to St. John's church after his short speech for a photo opportunity, the church having been mildly damaged by fire during a protest on Sunday night. So getting today's protesters out of the way was necessary for that.

Of course, Trump didn't have to walk to the church right then. He could have done it another time. The whole thing was staged, as was decidedly irreligious Trump holding up a Bible that was handed to him as a prop.

My suspicion is that there was another motive for ordering Lafayette Square to be cleared of the protesters before the curfew. CNN reporters who had been in the crowd all afternoon said that the protest had been completely peaceful until the federal authorities used tear gas, horses, and other totally inappropriate means to move the people out.

Listening to Trump's speech on my car radio, it struck me that all the commotion from the tear gas, flash bang explosives, and screams of the crowd provided the audio backdrop that our Wanna-be Dictator in Chief wanted for his law-and-order speech. 

Most people listening would have thought there was a riot going on next to the White House. Actually it was federal authorities who had created the disturbance, almost certainly on orders from the White House to do it at a certain time just before Trump started talking.

Either motivation for clearing out the peaceful protestors was disgusting.

I've rarely, if ever, heard CNN's Anderson Cooper speak so harshly about a presidential action as he did today. He correctly said that Trump made no effort to bring the country together or show any genuine empathy.

Instead, Trump talked about using the Insurrection Act to put the military into cities where protests are occurring.

Almost certainly this would be illegal if a governor and/or mayor refused that assistance, but Trump has never let a law stop him from doing whatever his dictatorial mind urges him to do.

We've gotten so used to all the crap that Trump inflicts upon our country that it is difficult to be shocked by him anymore. However, watching analysis of what Trump did today scared me more than anything else he's done. Firing Inspector's General is one thing, as horrible as it is.

Using his power as Commander in Chief to order the military to interfere in domestic protests is a whole other thing, especially when this goes against what virtually every major and governor where major protests are occurring want to have happen. 

Bill Maher regularly engages in what I used to consider to be illogical rants about how, if Trump loses the November election, he will refuse to leave the White House. Guests on his show usually try to talk Maher out of this doomsday scenario by saying that the military and police wouldn't go along if Trump tries to stay in office by claiming election fraud, or whatever.

In the past I've agreed with them.

But what Trump did today pushes me closer to Maher's attitude. There may be right-wing military leaders in our country who would help Trump try to remain president after losing the election. That's what happens in "banana republics" where elections are scoffed at by those who control the country's armed forces.

I'm still doubtful this will happen. The odds just seem greater now. 

Lastly, I'll share a final photo of a CNN caption that points to the blatant hypocrisy in Trump's speech.