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Stimulus pumps money into law enforcement
BY EMILY BATTLE The biggest impact of President Barack Obama's stimulus bill on local law enforcement agencies came earlier this year. When the General Assembly learned that the state would receive $24.3 million in justice grant money from the legislation, it removed a proposed cut to sheriffs and other constitutional officers from the state budget. Stafford County Sheriff Charles Jett said that saved him from cutting 14 deputies. Spotsylvania County Sheriff Howard Smith said it saved seven deputies in his department. "We would have been in a crisis here if they had made that cut," Smith said. "Right now we can't afford not to have seven deputies. I know the economy is slowing down and people are out of work, but our work has increased. We are seeing call volumes go up." Both sheriffs are hoping the stimulus will provide even more money so they can hire more deputies at a time when government budget situations have forced them to pare down their spending to the bare essentials. The stimulus bill includes $1 billion in grants for hiring community police officers. Police and sheriff's departments from all over the country will compete for that money, which will pay for new officers for up to 48 months. After that period, the locality has to pledge to pay the officers' salaries for a year. Jett said he plans to apply for 20 positions through that grant. A staffing study his department commissioned two years ago identified a need for 14 new first-responder positions and six new administrative positions. Neither state nor local money has been available in recent years to pay for those positions, so Jett's hoping the stimulus money will help. Smith said he plans to apply for money for six deputies. The Fredericksburg Police Department also will likely ask for grant money for at least one officer through the community-police grant program. The stimulus has also opened up other competitive grant programs, offering money to investigate Internet crimes against children and domestic violence. Jett said he hopes to be able to fund at least one position with grant money to start a domestic-violence unit. In addition to the competitive grants, the stimulus bill made money available to all Virginia localities through the Edward Byrne Justice Assistance Grant Program.
Read more stories about Fredericksburg Date published: 4/18/2009
How about, more Police Officers will be available to investigate crimes that have been committed? How many ways can you skin a cat?
Can you read? If the answer is no, please let me know. I'll just disregard your ignorance in lieu of pointing to it publicly. I wrote that robberies were seldom committed in front of police. They do happen, but most criminals know full well that to attempt a robbery in front of a police officer, would vastly increase the chance they would be caught. It would therefore be next to impossible to collect data on how many criminal acts are averted by the mere presence of police. Sadly, I must explain this 2 U.
I was merely attempting to shine a light into the tiny crevice surrounding the cavity that was designed to hold your brain. Where that little piece of gray matter is would be for you to find and report to the rest of us. The point being, most who commit crimes do not do so purposefully in front of the police, for they would increase the probability their crime would be detected and they would be held accountable for it. Statistical data is hard to compile on averted crime, but easy for arrested persons.
no one is arguing that. the idea that you are missing is the hundreds of crimes that do not happen because a cop is around are not important to us because they did not happen. we then dismiss it from our minds and only remember the big events, i.e. the officer killed next to the police station.
you concede in your autobiography "Ignorance Speaks" that crimes do get commited in front of police.
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