IT'S ALL ABOUT THE "NUMBERS"...

Really interesting things...those ten little integers (0-9), and what they can reveal to you, should you choose to dig a little deeper, and "do the math".

I have this one "pet peeve"...people that don't have the bulb for their license plate functioning. C'mon people, it'a ONLY a damn SEVENTY NINE cent part, for Christ's sake...it's not going to break your bank! Check the little bugger from time to time to see if it's WORKING.

So I notice last night that approximately FOUR cars went by the house (that I saw anyway) WITHOUT a license plate bulb working...nice dark tag to NOT be able to look at. And that got me thinking (which is ALWAYS a dangerous proposition when I'm involved)...LOL!

Fact - We have almost TEN hours of "night" per 24 hour cycle.
Fact - I saw 4 cars go by in ONE hour w/o license plate lights.
Fact - That makes FORTY (40) cars per "night".
Fact - We still have about 30 DAYS a month (give or take).
Fact - That comes to 1200 (as in TWELVE HUNDRED) cars per MONTH w/o license bulbs.
**** - ( supposition really) - *IF* the FWPD were to cite each vehicle for ONLY $50.00 (a rather nominal fee), that would amount to approximately $60,000 (as in THOUSAND) dollars a MONTH for each officer writing those citations. And that friends, is some SERIOUS scratch!

Now that would about cover the COST of one police officer with change left over (for the WHOLE YEAR), and we're only talking ONE DAMN MONTH here.

Another point: The FWPD is supposed to have about 427 officers on board. All well and good. But wait...isn't there an ADMINISTRATIVE staff? Correct, and should we count them (conservatively) at about 25% of the entire force, that brings the aforementioned 427 DOWN to about 321 "officers". Then there are the "special units" that don't regularly patrol our streets. But we'll go with the 321.

We take that 321 number and divide it by QUADRANT = 80 officers per quadrant. Then we divide THAT number by 3 (number of shifts) giving us a mere 26 (as in TWENTY SIX) officers on the street (per quadrant, discounting multiple officers at various scenes), answering calls for over 250,000 people in the city of Fort Wayne. This is of course devoid of the number of officers retiring, on vacation, disability, sick leave, and the like. As I have said...this is only a "conservative" approximation based on the total number of officers we're supposed to have.

Seems to me that the FWPD needs to get some priorities redefined, unless they LIKE having all this revenue slip between the cracks (as a lot of perps do in the Indiana judicial system).

I mean if they can set up "traffic checkpoints" to catch those yellow-light runners at Coldwater & Coliseum Avs, then they SURE AS HELL can do something like this. City revenue IS city revenue, no matter what method you use to get it, but I feel that a badly-timed light is a poor excuse to fill the city coffer, when a more pressing solution is readily available.

When I see the SAME damn morons driving (with relative impunity) by every night WITHOUT the proper vehicle illumination, simply because THIS part of town hasn't the resources (nor the apparent desire) to cite these people, well, it makes the hairs on the back of my neck stand up...and that's never a good sign.

The city and the FWPD promote Community-Oriented Policing, but I can tell you one thing: That policy is ONLY as good as the people WILLING to participate in it. By that I mean that if folks are either intimidated OR apatheic, the whole policy means less than the paper it's printed on. That's why this method fails miserably (and yet we're not told about THAT).

The city and the FWPD don't seem to (want to) embrace the "Broken Window" theory either, and with the rapid growth of this city, it SHOULD be a no-brainer. But not one agancy here is proactive enough (or bold enough) to want to take on the "small stuff", so as not to allow the LARGER stuff (i.e. crime) to get a foothold. Yet THIS method HAS shown itself to be VERY effective. Sure, you're going to cheese some people off, but the greater GOOD of EVERYONE is at stake. Besides, no one can please EVERY single person ALL the damn time...that's simply impossible.

Now please don't assume that I'm being ANTI-POLICE here...nothing could be FARTHER from the truth. It's men and women like these officers that keep the Barbarians from the gate, as it were. They are our first line of defense against criminals. I just point out some overly blatant observations based on experiences. And I can see no reason why the department can't see this, and act upon it in kind.

But as you can see...it DOES all come down to NUMBERS......the fact of the matter is that when the REAL numbers are never presented, we can only "believe" whatever is placed in front of us...unless WE decide to search between the lines.

Therein lies the truth.