Why aren’t my tax dollars fully funding my police?
October 15, 2009by Heather Steele, President & CEO
It’s a question I hear every day. People are shocked and surprised at first to think that perhaps their local police agency is not getting the money it needs to be able to ensure public safety.
But once people think about the stories on their local news, they begin to reconsider. Here in San Diego the problem funding enough officers started well before the economic collapse, and is getting worse every year. Year after year, the city councils choose and feel forced to make major budgetary cuts out of public safety, including police and fire.
After years of bloody cuts, just how many more drastic reductions in funding can police make? Surely, we are past the point of putting our own safety in jeopardy when we force our financial distress on the police charged with serving and protecting us. Stories about agencies that can’t afford to purchase patrol vehicles, computers, and even office furniture cross my desk on a regular basis. If you had to work in today’s world without a desk, a computer or a car, just how would you manage it?
In San Diego, the San Diego Police Foundation has raised over $3.5 million over the last decade to cover the gap between tax money funding of police and their BASIC needs for equipment and programs. Their work has funded vehicles, K-9 officers, community safety cameras, horse trailers, and a host of other vital needs.
In Los Angeles, the Los Angeles Police Foundation is forced to raise over $1,000,000 per year from the local population to cover the fundamental needs of LAPD not covered by their city budget. And in New York, the problem is even more drastic. There, the New York Police Foundation raises an astounding $6,000,000 per year to cover basic needs of NYPD.
But not every police department is lucky enough to have a non-profit police foundation that works on its behalf to raise money from the local community so it can continue operations.
That’s why we’re here. We stand up for any law enforcement agency nationwide which is trying to rescue children from child sex predators and make our neighborhoods safe again.
But we can’t do it without your help. As much as everyone is hurting financially, our children are hurting the most. Many are afraid to go to bed at night, because they know Daddy will be visiting and what he will do to them.
Now we have the technology to get those children to safety, stop their nightmare existence, and help them heal, but the police who are desperately fighting to get to those children don’t have the basic equipment and resources they need to do their jobs.
They need your help to get to those kids. Please pick a team. Any amount helps.
Without your help, those American children, maybe in your family, or in your neighborhood, don’t stand a chance.
