Annapolis Capital Punishment

How many police officers should we have? Is there a national average of officers per capita? Is there a standard accepted by law enforcement officials? Should every city have the same number of officers per capita? These are important questions when considering the fact that we are down almost two dozen officers. Mayor Moyer, in various pronouncements, letters and official communications continues to claim that our police force, even with a high proportion of positions not filled, constitutes a force with a much higher than national average of officers per capita. In other words, she is telling us that we really don't have that big a problem.

She is wrong. We must tell her that. We must encourage her to work diligently to recruit and retain more police officers. Our own City Council public safety committee has done just that, yet she has responded, yet again, by saying not only is she addressing this challenge, but she tells us this statistic, this misleading theory that we have many more officers per capita than the national average. This national average means little. Even the International Association of Chiefs of Police says there is no proper ratio.

Mayor Moyer--either we need more officers or we do not. We cannot have it both ways. We know there are national challenges to attracting more officers, but we want you to make this a priority. Please, stop using this misleading and ultimately false statistic. It is meaningless. Just get on with the job.

Please let the Mayor know how you feel, and while you're at it, remind her that our own police department is cool to the idea of Segways and a horse. They are silly, costly, ineffective and impractical. Let's focus more on bicycles if anything. They are cheaper, more maneuverable, faster and less dangerous to people who are walking. Let's ban the @%^#** Segways from our sidewalks and get officers walking and bicycling. But first--let's get the officers we are supposed to have on our force.

By the way, maybe we have more than the national average of trees in our city. Would the Mayor suggest we let them die or cut them down? (hint--this is a rhetorical question).