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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