As Mayor Nancy Vaughan said, Greensboro is an “outlier” when it comes to take home police cars.
At some point in the last few decades, Greensboro fell behind the competing jurisdictions in the area and is the only one that doesn’t provide police officers with take home cars.
This year the Greensboro City Council has a great opportunity to fix a problem it didn’t create, but so far the City Council is opposed. It is a unique opportunity because the federal government decided to give Greensboro more than $59 million to spend pretty much on anything the City Council wants.
This is a budget year like no other in which the City Council, instead of trying to figure out how to balance the spending with the revenue, has far more revenue than it anticipated due to the American Rescue Plan money.
So the issue with buying additional police cars isn’t a money issue, but a perception issue. The City Council is under pressure from the left to defund the police, but also under pressure to do something about the rise in violent crime. The City Council doesn’t want to get a reputation for defunding the police, so by providing the Police Department with raises but not the equipment it needs, it can have its cake and eat it too.
The cost of providing 100 new police cars appears to be about $6 million. The city staff added in a lot of extra costs in the budget work session, but the actual estimate to purchase and outfit the cars appears to be about $1.2 million per 20 cars.
So it appears that the actual cost to the city is about $6 million to purchase and outfit 100 new police cars. That would mean that for about 10 percent of the American Rescue Plan money, Greensboro could get on par with the other cities in the state and provide take home police cars for patrol officers, not over a five-year period, but all at once, and catch up with the other law enforcement agencies in the state.
Councilmembers have said they don’t understand why the police need take home cars. But Police Chief Brian James says that they do.
When other departments request equipment, the City Council rarely discusses it. The City Council for instance doesn’t decide how many garbage trucks the city needs, it provides the Field Operations Department with the number the department requests.
One reason James says that he needs take home cars is to help recruit more police officers. Raising the salaries will help with recruitment, but new police officers also want take home cars and can go to any neighboring city and not only get a take home police car but may also start at a higher salary despite the raises in the proposed budget.
The money for additional police cars is available and the main reason not to give James what he says he needs to police the city properly is that the City Council is succumbing to pressure not to properly fund the Police Department and trying to pretend that it isn’t.
This city is run by condescending white liberals with myopic cognitive dissonance! They need to go! First blaming the police, then the bars(closed at the time) and probably not their country club watering holes.. Put the responsibility where it belongs! There is something missing, a hole in the heart and soul, of these violent criminals! Could it be the publik skools and lack of belief in a higher power?
This is inappropriately labeled as news.
Uh. . . .but it’s the truth. Who care if it should be in a different section. . . . only you.
Your senseless babble is inappropriately labeled as a comment.
Um, it is clearly labeled as, and I’m quoting here, “OPINION” at the top of the article.
Of course if you would like to offer a constructive opinion of how GPD can better compete with other agencies to attract quality officers, we are all ready to listen. You can’t possibly not want the best officers here right? Aren’t you the guy who is saying that GPD officers are dumb and unqualified? If you want to fix that problem, then we need better candidates. To get the best candidates, we need the best benefits, but I assume you have a better idea. Let’s hear it.
One of your friends explained to me how police officers are uneducated. Just going off of that.
How do you suppose we pay for the best benefits without taxing you? Real questions for actual GOP voters – you vote GOP because you don’t want to be taxed – this is evidenced by a long history. How do you buy police cars take home cars (which will evidently be left unlocked and stolen per practice of the sheriff), better pay, better schools (that would be a benefit right?), etc. etc. etc. without increasing government revenue via taxes and fees?
No, we don’t want our tax money wasted. Big difference. Spend it wisely, such as attracting and hiring quality police candidates. Maybe don’t spend a half a million a year on a Cure Violence program that does not work or an SEL Group program for another half million which does not work. See, there’s a million dollars right there. I offer solutions, you offer excuses.
The Sheriff works for Guilford County. The GCSO has a different area of responsibility (little call answering due to most of Guilford County being the City of Greensboro and High Point) and a focus on detention. What an elected official does with his $60,000 Tahoe is different than what the unelected police chief can do with his city vehicle and what consequences he will endure for apparently leaving his key fob in the car and letting a drug addict be in it for over 2 hours.
Name Star, you have a habit of conflating issues in order to hide your lack of information on the issue and your inability to separate ideology from facts and educated discussion. You can’t have it both ways-cops are stupid but we don’t want to recruit, compensate, and educate the persons who aren’t stupid. Want to keep hiring meatheads, which I agree there are many in the local police force, then keep having compensation packages that attract meatheads who can’t get hired by the agencies that pay better, have better benefits, and take home cars. Want to keep high crime rates, lackadaisical, bare minimum officers-keep having a demographic, illegitimate promotional system to appease the Hightower’s of the council. The City of Greensboro will never have a premier police force that focuses on the community issues and lower crime rates under the current construct. I have come to the conclusion that our Council does not want things to get better. In an ironic twist, the status quo and lack of positive direction keeps the same people on council. There are people on council who have literally spent decades in these elected positions. At what point do we as a city recognize they have not done the proper job of moving the city forward? We need some fresh people on council who aren’t bowing down to 2-4 developers, who do not receive salaries for their 501C3s from the city, and who aren’t 80 years old.
Dearest Namestar,
Have you ever considered flushing yourself down the toilet for the betterment of mankind? I would offer mine, but I worry I’d have some slime to cleanup afterwards.
NEWSFLASH – We ARE being taxed.
When is enough enough?
No it wasn’t. It was labeled as opinion.
It’s labeled as opinion, actually.
It’d be nice if other media outlets did this.
100% spot on. The city council should be ashamed!
Bingo!
It will get worse.These people will keep getting reelected.Greensboro will soon be a pariah.
The city IS just that. More murders than Portland.
The mayor needs to GO! Send Nancy Home!
And they want to float a bond referendum. And they haven’t spent the money from previous bonds. And they want to adopt a budget to raise our taxes, against the Lame Duck Manager’s recommendation. So they not know that ALL citizens of Greensboro have suffered financially in COVID-19, not just the left wing groups! Everyone! If you think I’m going to vote for a bond referendum when Council has all this federal relief income AND wants to raise my taxes, you are crazy! I was out of work due to Covid. I didn’t get rich with the extra unemployment. I still didn’t make what I normally did. Sure, those that make below a certain amount were better off but that was a minority. The vast majority of us needed to get back to work. I’m struggling to pay my bills and taxes. Mayor Vaughan, I didn’t get a salary increase this year to cover your wants and desires. WE NEED A WHOLE NEW NINE COUNCIL MEMBERS!
I just don’t get it. The Police Chief in a roundabout way is telling us he can’t compete with other towns over this issue with take home cars. The cost is 6 million. Greensboro got 59 million to SPEND anyway we need to but the council says it’s a no go but 250,000 dollars for Skippy’s money sucking museam is ok. All the money for COUNCIL MENBERS special projects is ok with no accountability for money already received and now they want MORE? I don’t know about the rest of you but I’m sick and tired of these jokers. It’s time to stop this insanity.
The current council of turds only cares about buying votes. They spit in the faces of those who serve almost daily.
Poor Queen Nancy. Faced with a good and evil choice without a political answer.
Buy the cars, raise the pay for law enforcement and suffer the wrath of the idiot few that want to defund the police. The people of Greensboro need and deserve a well funded police department.
Queen Nancy is Despicable.
NEWS FLASH!!! We are paying for a well funded Police Department, we are not getting it is because figures don’t lie. Liars figure. We don’t need conversations, we need ALL New COUNCIL MEMBERS that will take action.
Crime is increasing and we need more competent law enforcement personnel to help stop it. We are fortunate for the qualified, caring people who enter the field. Taxpayers should certainly pay for this protection. Certain neighborhoods are known to need more protection and it should be provided.
But there are numerous, obvious lawbreakers who are not caught, those causing accidents, injuries and death. Speeding, not following driving and traffic laws exceed the number of break-ins and murders AND the amount of $ to handle the cases of many are handled by the innocent taxpayers, not the offenders. Hire more law enforcement and put them in unmarked cars in high-crime areas and roadways with major speed and other traffic infractions. Then divide the cost of those services among the offenders, not the innocent taxpayers. If the criminals know they will HAVE TO PAY even if it means selling their car or possessions,they may reconsider their actions.
Someone visiting from a far-East country said their crime rate dropped when criminals had to pay room and board while in jail!
Great Idea! Throw them in jail snd access fines.