Massive Police Layoffs: An Alarming Trend Endangering Public Safety in America

As a certified law enforcement instructor and national speaker, it has been a privilege to conduct presentations for law enforcement personnel of every conceivable rank and agency. It has also been my privilege to serve as a community policing/crime prevention instructor and advocate, assisting with the certification of law enforcement personnel. With these experiences, I have met countless men and women who serve our nation’s communities through their noble and necessary profession. Their service is integral not only to public safety but to the very morale of American society.

With this in mind, I have great concerns for public safety and for the safety of law enforcement personnel due to the continuous headlines of massive police layoffs. This is not the course that the communities of the greatest nation on the earth should take but this trend is tragically indicated as in these recent headlines:

• Newark finalizes 167 police layoffs…
• Passaic County Sheriff’s Department lays off 24
• Camden council approves layoffs of nearly half of police force
• Paterson considers cutting police force by 150 officers
• Jersey City Police Layoffs Part of Larger Cop Cuts Statewide
• East Orange to lay off dozens of police officers…
• Officers Uneasy As Police Layoffs Loom in Phoenix
• Brace yourself: Police layoffs could cost lives
• Layoffs to gut East St. Louis police force
• Police Layoffs in Michigan Fuels Public Safety Debate
• More police, fire layoffs coming in February
• Will thousands of Police Layoffs Unleash Chaos and Anarchy Across America
• New Jersey sees 15-percent spike in homicides over past year
• 4 Police Officers Shot Dead in Lakewood Coffeehouse Ambush
• Philadelphia Police Officer Killed On Duty
• Three police officers killed in Oakland shootings
• 5 Police Officers Shot in Jersey City: Follows Killings of Police in Philadelphia and Oakland
• Oakland Police layoffs mark the end of community policing

Parenthetically, a recent published report held this title: Police Fatalities jump 37 percent in 2010 with a sobering quote in the article,

“There is a more cold blooded brazen criminal element prowling the streets of America today.”

In my opinion, American cities (and the dedicated men and women of law enforcement) are in great danger when the critical mission of law enforcement is compromised by massive cutbacks. Questions must be answered such as where is the impact of a national stimulus plan when public safety is so tragically compromised? And how can the profoundly sound ideals of community policing and crime prevention continue when budgets streamline these units and personnel because of the requirements of patrol which influence reactive rather than proactive initiatives?

America must not allow its communities and honorable law enforcement profession to be victimized by this current trend of layoffs. There is a way to be financially sound without undermining what is critical to the very heart of our communities and the nation itself: public safety.

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Police fatalities jump 37 percent in 2010	Click here to visit site
Vincent Bove Community Policing Blogs	Click here to visit site

Federal Report: Virginia Tech Violated Law Failing to Warn the Campus

Since the April 16, 2007 tragedy, I have stated emphatically in my presentations, blogs, response and newest book Listen To Their Cries, that Virginia Tech failed their community with an inexcusable response to the tragedy. Essentially, I have expressed their response as a failure of judgment, competence and leadership that allowed more than two hours to pass after the first killings before issuing an alert to their campus. Compounding this failure was another clear expression of egregious negligence, their warning was vague. The results were the senseless and preventable deaths of 30 more community members after the first two murders and many additional injuries.

On December 9, 2010 my teachings on the failure of Virginia Tech were affirmed by the findings of the United States Department of Education’s report and were published in reports throughout the nation.

Reprinted From Google News

Feds: Va. Tech broke law in '07 shooting response

RICHMOND, Va. (AP) — Federal education officials have found Virginia Tech broke the law when it waited two hours to warn the campus that a gunman was on the loose, too late to save 30 students and faculty who went to class and were killed in the 2007 rampage.

The U.S. Department of Education issued a report Thursday rejecting the university's defense of its conduct and confirming that the school violated the Clery Act, which requires that students and employees be notified of on-campus threats.

The report concludes that the university failed to issue a timely warning to the Blacksburg campus after student Seung-Hui Cho shot and killed two students in a dormitory early on the morning of April 16, 2007.

"Virginia Tech's failure to issue timely warnings about the serious and ongoing threat deprived its students and employees of vital, time-sensitive information and denied them the opportunity to take adequate steps to provide for their own safety," the report stated.

Virginia Tech officials did not send an e-mail to the campus community about the shootings until two hours later, about the time Cho was chaining shut the doors to a classroom building where he killed 30 more students and faculty, then himself.

It is my hope that this United States Department of Education report serves truth, accountability and consequences and that these issues are further served by the pending lawsuits against the university by victims of the tragedy.

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USDOE Report	Click here to visit site
Practical Information on Crisis Planning: A Guide For Schools And Communities	Click here to visit site
The Handbook for Campus Crime Reporting	Click here to visit site
Virginia Tech Blogs	Click here to visit site