Public meeting TONIGHT at Cler-Mont Elementary School

For those of you questioning the budget and where the money for the city is spent, you can find the report here for 2008: 
http://www.ci.independence.mo.us/Finance/budgetDownloads/2009/OperatingBudget08-09.pdf
If you are interested in doing a budget comparison from 10 years ago, visit this link: http://www.ci.independence.mo.us/Finance/budgetDownloads/1998/Budget%20Document%201997-98.pdf
(These are large pdf documents that require the free Adobe Acrobat reader to view them http://www.adobe.com)

One of the things mentioned by the officers last night was the limited number of officers this city has available for each shift. Something I was hoping the officer would have better explained was the number of officers available on Northzone and the number of officers available on Southzone. The two zones combined adds up to the total number of officers he told the public last night. (I think) everything north of 23rd St. is Northzone and everything south of 23rd St is Southzone.
Another point he made was priority calls. I know from monitoring the police scanner on a daily basis that calls do come in by priority.  That brings me to another item I wish he would have pointed out. While a high priority call could come in on southzone (and I will give an example) this could require assistance from northzone units to respond to a southzone call.

eg
Let's say some guy threatens neighbors with a gun at 40 Hwy and Northfleet, almost, but not quite into Kansas City. Neighbors may need to be evacuated, and roads must be blocked for public safety purposes. This could require all officers on southzone, and many on northzone. Meanwhile on northzone, the remaining 4 officers are on high priority calls. Each time an officer goes on a high priority call, at least two officers respond. The remaining two officers could already be on another high priority call somewhere else on northzone, perhaps somewhere near the Independence Square. Meanwhile, other high priority calls will most likely come in. Now, let's say you called the police about an incident during this incident. Response times are certainly going to be delayed and the calls will be responded to by highest priority.
An effort was recently made to get more tax dollars for additional officers to patrol the streets, but voters shot it down.
Groups such as this one could also focus on handing out brochures prior to a vote taking place, and even be handed out at polling stations. It could give a better understanding as to what people are voting for before they walk in the door.
I urge everyone to listen to what's happening on the police scanner for at least one full day. This will give you a better understanding about the response times. You can listen to my Independence, Missouri Police and Fire scanner feed live by following the instructions on my website: http://indepmo.com/listen
 

.......glad to have you back Elisa.....I watched the Channel 41 story last night.......kudos to Tina for her hard efforts........the only thing I found appalling was when the police gave the excuse that the reason they were an hour late on the "call about the fighting kids"........that they just didn't have the manpower because of prioritizing "violence in the city".........OK........I'll buy that for one call......I'll buy that for maybe a second and a THIRD call........but I am remembering Tina saying that there had been (without looking it up) some ASTRONOMICAL number of 911 calls about this SAME issue.....EDIT:          the only reference I could FIND was that there were "OVER TWO DOZEN " 911 calls placed by Tina.............and the police are going to have me believe that there is so much "violence in the city" like East L.A. that it takes them an hour to respond to a call a few miles from their station?.......time and TIME again?......over 24 times?.............that's ridiculous...........it SOUNDED good on camera........like they're REALLY trying.......but common sense prevails here........sorry I'm not buying it........then of COURSE I was waiting for the "stinger"..........which came at the end...........the newscaster reminded us that "Independence voters TURNED DOWN the police request for more manpower by voting down the recent sales tax increase on the ballot.........I  was not FOR the tax increase but I voted FOR it because I thought it was the lesser of TWO evils...........but in no way do I think this excuses the IPD  from being able to respond in a timely manner...... a MULTITUDE of times........ a few miles from their station.........once?.....yeah.......twice?.....OK.......three times?........alright.......but repeatedly?........don't insult our intelligence ..............no wonder people over there "voted it down"...........the police aren't impressing THEM much...........except for "rhetoric".............the time the officers spent at the "photo op" and public meeting could have been used to solve the problem if they had just "made it a priority " once or twice.............I'm guessing if a kid got seriously injured on "school grounds?".........from fighting after hours?.......like being in a coma......or worse ?.......death..........then some "ambulance chaser" would have the parents  bringing a lawsuit against the city for "not stopping "such violence on school grounds.........if they coudn't sue the city they'd find SOMEBODY...........

 Amy I know you come to all of Tina's meetings. It was so good you pulled all the police reports for the last year on the park. Most people don't know you can do that. Of course most people don't know we have had the same amount of police officers (12) on our Patrol Division. Who would think for the last 30 years that number has been the same. It's like a sick joke. If the tax would have past why would we think the city would change the number of men and women on the Patrol Division? The city has made it clear for 30 years in their minds we only need 12 little cars but what we truly need is to build more stuff with our tax dollars. On my side of town I have seen many of my friends walk away from their businesses. We have schools that have 78% of the kids on special lunch programs. Our families are at poverty level. People are loosing hours of work and even their jobs. We know people who have lost their cars and home. When most cities are cutting back our city wants to raise our taxes and spend more money. When the crime wave of drugs took over our city no one must of thought of the 12 little cars. Over the last year I have said time and time again we need help for our Patrol Division. We have problems with gangs but no one wanted to admit it or even talk about it as if the problems could just go away. Why would the city build a hockey arena with these problems that are already larger than life to add to our security problems? Our city just don't seem to see it. They have had a blind eye to these problems for 30 years. They wanted to build more with the sales tax. The people could see that and the rest is history. Government needs to be open and accountable. People need to understand where our tax dollars go. Not adding to the 12 little cars for over 30 years has eroded public confidence. Our city officials have tried to keep that a secret but the little secret is out now. Trust and respect is something earned and should never be taken for granted.

Take a look through the budgets as noted at the first of this thread. Perhaps that will shed some light as to where the money goes.And no, I don't wonder why you voted no. You seem totally ignorant of the needs of the force and never took the time to educate yourself on that subject.