Local government budgets are something like 75% personnel related and if you look at recent studies, public safety cuts have been the last resort for many.

You also need to balance short and long-term outcomes. Cutting education (teachers) or even social services, recreation programs, etc have longer term implications...ie the potential for more "at risk" kids resulting in the potential for more to turn to crime.

Even cutting basic public works programs have implications.

Budgeting a city during times of significant revenue shortfalls is not quite as simple as balancing the family budget.

So if 75% represents the personnel costs am I to believe police and fire are the least necessary personnel? If personnel are to be cut I would think they'd be from non critical activities unless the politicians are playing the fear card simply as a motivational tool.

3. But I like my worldly goods....:)

4. No need for bars on the windows because I have 3 dogs.

I never claimed guns were my panacea. It is the LAST option if shit goes really, really badly. Rest assured though...I won't be an unwilling victim.

Everyone in the Gravdigr household has a gun within reach of the bed (even Momdigr, she has her mom's .22 revolver, and can put three rounds in the bottom of a soda can at 40 feet, the longest distance she'd have to shoot inside the house). We have one loaded (not the chamber) short-barrell Mossberg 500 behind the front door (everyone knows how to use it), and an outdoor-screaming-yellow-light-flashing alarm system. And VERY watchful neighbors.

We've all lived right here for around 35 yrs, this neighborhood belongs to us.

Good for you dmg.

Lookout - when they say a policeman has been laid off, they do not necessarily mean one from the streets. Many times, the desk personnel are the ones taking the hit.

I wonder how much people would care if their trash collection was being reduced - Has all that been cut? Nope - The police get cut - err they notify you that the police are GOING to get cut because that creates the public outcry they want.
Think of all the other cuts that could be made - srsly. Police, fire and the like should be the last on list, but I doubt they are.

Oh and while we are on the subject - are these the same police who's jobs were getting cut already and were "saved" by the stimulus?

The ones that we were told were going to lose their jobs in 12 months because thats all the stimulus was going to pay for? I remember some discussion about.

What I said and what you will find in most studies is that public safety personnel are generally the last to be cut.

And still, the choices are never as simple as the police should be the last...it is not that black and white. Every cut has implications that need to be balanced.

Example...is going from two-person to one-person squad cars in certain (low crime) districts and during certain (low crime) shifts worse than cutting the need to replace a broken water treatment system?

Just not your front porch step.

I don't think I've ever seen a two-person squad car, except on tv.

@ BigV - bwahahahaha!

glatt loves Adam-12 reruns. :)

The best was when Adam 12 would make a run to the hospital, and see Johnny and Roy there from the fire department. Worlds colliding!

Epidemiological theory to explain results they didn't want? There is no need for epidemiological theory when they know what the fuck they are talking about.
Harvard never asked me if I've used a gun to prevent a crime or bodily injury to myself. I've done both but how would they know? Police reports? The police only hear about it if someone gets shot. My roommate was robbed at gunpoint. He handed over his wallet, and when the perp turned and started to walk away my roommate pulled out his gun, took back his wallet, plus the perp's wallet and gun. No police involved. Harvard doesn't know.

How do they count the burglaries, robberies, or assaults that don't happen because the perps aren't sure if I'm armed or not?

Just curious xoB

By your account, do you consider your roommate's actions armed robbery?

By the way, I agree with your larger point that most successful deterrents (not methods but instances) are most likely unreported or at least underreported.

Yes, probably two the way Harvard counts.