Spokane Police and Crime

My purpose for running for mayor is to solve some problems that have been getting worse and the city administration is neglecting them or not willing to be honest with its citizens.  First I will give you a little information about me.   I am married, have two wonderful boys.  We attend Spokane First Nazarene.  I graduated from Whitworth University with a B.S. in Bio-Chemistry.  I enjoy solving complex problems with no easy solution, which is why I enjoy science so much.  My family and I enjoy the outdoors.  We like to go camping and mountain biking.  We typically ride several times a week out at Riverside State Park and on Beacon Hill during the warmer months.  I did however get two 16 mile loop rides in during February where I rode from my home, up over Beacon Hill, through downtown and back home.  I love riding through downtown, the smells, the sounds, and the beautiful Riverfront Park. 

Now back to the issue of Public Safety. To keep it simple we need more police, yet the city continues to cut funding.  Crime is up in Spokane and when there is a crime in progress and you call the police, I believe that the police should have the ability to respond. From the image above you can see that the police force has declined from 2008 and 2009.  (All of my data comes from www.fbi.gov)  At the time I obtained the data, they did not have completed 2010 reports.  

Now look at the Property Crime Chart.  Property crime in the city of spokane is up sharply.  Now if you take a look at the 2011 Proposed Budget, Pg 5, there is another cut of 45.5 position in the Police Department.  What do you believe will happen with crime then.  

In 2010 I called the police several times with no police officer coming to the scene.  One of the calls was about a large group of high school age boys rioting through the Logan neighborhood.  They were throwing things at our house and houses all along the street.  They were kicking over people garbage cans and kicking cars.  With this particular instance, I did however get one officer to call me and he stated that they "do not pull an officer off the street for something like that".  I believe that this is unacceptable.   

The second call that I mentioned was about graffiti.  Everywhere I drive in Spokane I see graffiti.  How do you believe this looks to tourist that visit our beautiful city?  When you travel to a different city and you drive through a part of town that has a lot of graffiti, what goes through your mind?  In my mind I see a place that probably is not safe.  One possible solution to this would be the creation of a work study group.  Work study is in most cases 65% paid by the state.  This would provide the city with very cheap labor while assisting students with going to school.  It would give them work experience and it will help clean up our city.