Crime reduction

By Pat McCullough

Crime reduction is not an either-or proposition, but a comprehensive approach to a complex problem.

These tactics will be implemented simultaneously, using as their basis existing, but faltering, practices that have failed because of poor coordination and political will. Anti-violence programs, notably those run or funded by the School District, Measure Y, Parks and Recreation, and Non Govermental Organizations, are essential to solving our crime problem. However, they often lack accountability, are poorly coordinated and lack unifying management and oversight, rendering them incapable of reaching enough of the target audience to make a significant difference. I plan to increase their efficiency and effectiveness by solving these problems.

Increasing the number of police officers is the most essential component of the solution. Our economy and our very lives depend on having enough officers available to patrol our streets and make it safer for people and business to flourish. OPD is chronically under-staffed and attempting to do too much with too few officers. While decreasing waste and inefficient practices, we must increase OPD's funding to allow maintenance of a force of approximately 1,000. I will help direct the recruiting effort which could include utilization of the city's First-time Home Buyers Program.

Better coordination of the various law enforcement agencies and the judiciary is another part of the solution. Rehabilitation, for those offenders for whom that is possible, must be made the goal of incarceration. Corrections, Youth Authority, Probation, Parole, the District Attorney, and Judiciary must all work together.

These agencies all suffer a lack of resources that affect the level of crime on our streets. But I believe that the citizenry will support increasing funding when they are assured that waste is being curtailed.

Implementing these solutions is not really an expensive proposition when one considers the overall costs of crime to our society. We must do it all or we will continue to have, or exacerbate, deadly social ills that sap our economic vitality and darken our future.