No one likes higher taxes.
However, no one likes crime.
And to combat crime, you need constables on patrol.
In recent years, the Chatham-Kent Police Service has delivered budgets to the municipality with very low increases. They looked good on paper, but not so much on our streets.
Officer numbers slid…to the point three-dozen officers have been brought on board the past few years.
And, as a result, the police service budget has increased to more than $43 million annually.
We’re in a dire situation with the trifecta of hell – homelessness, mental health and addiction. It’s a terrible triangle that is horribly intermeshed. One can lead to the others and once this sets in, some stuck in the triangle turn to crime to feed their habits.
Break and enters and drug charges are our biggest issues in C-K, by and large, and, as mentioned, they overlap heavily.
The judicial system has done little to deter matters. Defence attorneys know the system and work within it, getting their clients minimum time served. It’s their job; work the system.
However, it doesn’t help an addict. Then again, even if they serve enough time behind bars to get clean, the system supports are not in place to make that happen anyway.
As a result, it falls on police. Visible presence can deter crime. Chief Kirk Earley has vowed to have more police walking beats, interacting with people and keeping an eye out for criminal activity.
More personnel means more potential for such work by police.
It’s not a fix to our problem, but it increases deterrence and the chance of catching people in the act of committing a crime.
They can’t do it alone, however.
If you see a crime or suspected criminal activity taking place, don’t just post a video on social media and whine about it; call the police.
If you want help, phone the cops. If you want likes online, that’s on you, not the police.
Or perhaps you think Chatham-Kent police should hire cops to spend all day on computers trying to keep track of keyboard warriors lamenting the state of things via social media. That’s not productive at all.
