I was very disappointed to read that the Northampton City Council voted to reduce the police budget by 10% without having any plan in place.
We moved to Northampton in part because it is a progressive community. We voted for additional taxes because we believed that there was thoughtful leadership that would spend the additional funding in meaningful ways. We support reimagining public safety and changing the culture of police, but if the Gazette description of the council meeting is accurate, the council decided in one night and at one meeting, to somehow transform the Police Department because there were protesters at the meeting.
The council chose to reduce staff by an unknown amount, reduce unspecified maintenance and reject the purchase of hybrid cars without any detailed analysis of the meaning or impact of these changes, without any input from the chief of police who the council hired, without any expert analysis or report and without any knowledge of operational losses.
Our city government should be better than this. Don’t misunderstand my position. I think it is great that we examine and fight to change the culture of public safety. Joining with local community service organizations to perform a wide range of tasks is a great idea.
Detailing the role of our police, training the police and reorganizing public safety roles can and should be done. This effort would probably cost money not save money, at least initially.
The council didn’t reallocate funds toward any of these projects and this thoughtless abandonment of responsibility deserves criticism. In Northampton, the transformation of policing should and can be a cooperative effort that would serve as a model for the nation.
Knee-jerk reactions and slogans are not going to get us there.
Kenneth Albert
Northampton