Once again the Officers on the street are paying for the shortfalls of the Abramson administration. On the heels of last month's ?gas tax? for officers that use their vehicles to get to off duty jobs at $60 a month, this week we found out from the news media, not from our own department that all officers will now be required to pay $30 a month for the ?privilege? of having a take home car. The take home police car program has benefited the community over the years a lot more than it has benefited the officers that took them home. In the 1970's Mayor Harvey Sloan decided to cut back the Police Department by starting the OMNI Car Program. Omni stands for Omni Presence. Mayor Sloan sold the program to the community several ways:
That there would be the appearance of ?more officers on the street? by having Officers takes the vehicles to and from work and encouraged them drive them off duty
The cost of the fleet would be reduced because cars were not being run 24 hours a day and lasting less than 1 year. (Louisville and other major cities that did not have take home vehicles replaced a patrol unit on an average of 6 months to a year) Imagine if the city had to purchase 500 police cars every 6 months!
Officers took better care of the vehicles and they now average 6-8 years per vehicle before it is taken out of service.
Officers were allowed to use the vehicles to work off duty which further put more uniformed officers on the street usually at locations or businesses that were trouble locations which in turn freed up on-duty officers from having to make runs at these locations. (In 2003 Chief Robert White endorsed the take off duty work program because on duty officers didn't have to continually make runs to these type locations.)
The cost savings for the governments were astronomical and the program worked.
Officers were able to get ahead and provide better for their families because they were able to make a little extra on the side
Mayor Sloan was then able to cut the manpower of the department to a level that has not had to be increased since the 1970's (more than 100 officers) because there were officers willing to take second jobs in these trouble locations paid for by merchants and business owners for only the cost of the car being at the location. This off duty program that he started has been a boon to the community and to the neighborhoods. If there was a police car in a neighborhood or a business it reduced crime and once again gave the perception that there were more Police out there then there actually were.
It is a well known fact that Mayor Abramson doesn't like the police. He has proven this time and time again that he loathes them and considers them second class citizens. He considers them an unfortunate necessity. Several months ago Officers ratified a new contract and charging them money is taking away benefits which is outside the tenants of the collective bargaining agreement. In the past he was well known for his tactics of giving us a meager raise and then raising the insurance rates at open enrollment thus nullifying any increases that were gained. Now that the insurance is in the contract it seems he has found a new way to get back at us.
He wants to further drive down the morale of the officers by now charging them for the 'so called? privilege of using the vehicles while they are not at work. His plan is to charge the officers $30.00 a month whether they use the vehicle even if all they do is to use it to commute to and from to work in.
It doesn't seem like much, it is a dollar a day, but there is a principle involved here that many people have failed to see. This has always been a benefit to the community and a recruiting tool for the department. It kind of made up for the crappy raises that Abramson is famous for giving. The fact is it should have been addressed with the FOP because it is in the contract that the city cannot mess with wages, hours and compensation.
Some Council people went on record about how they thought it was wrong that we drove our kids to school and went to the grocery in them. YES WE DO! Do you want to know what else happens when I am doing the aforementioned activities? I am providing a visible police presence. People slow down and obey the law. I have come across accidents and been flagged down for assistance. It has always been and understood practice that if I am driving my take home police vehicle and I see a crime in progress, a violator or a citizen that needs assistance that because I have a take home vehicle I would stop and take action or render assistance and that I would not put in for overtime for the time spent on my time.
I think that unwritten policy will mean that because the officers are now being charged for this privilege then they should no longer do it for free. I am sure the overtime costs from 4 or 5 motorist assists or citations etc? will be far costlier to Metro Government than the amount of money he is demanding for using the vehicle.
He has once again proven that his ineffectual leadership is further driving this community down. The fractional ?monetary savings? will not begin to compensate for his overspending. He has been the worst mayor this community has ever seen. The people of our community need to realize that with crime at an all time high and the FACT that there are less officers on the street now than before merger that we need to do more to at least have the appearance of more Officers on the street not less.
This new ?Police Gas Tax? has obviously been implemented to make up for his failed library tax. Don't forget that Mayor Abramson likes to spend money that he doesn't have. He did it at merger when he tried to take the tax money from the Sheriff and when he lost in court he bemoaned that he had already put that money in the next year's budget. He is saying now that we are facing a 9 million dollar shortfall which is suspiciously like the amount he was going to get from taxing all citizens of Louisville for the use of the libraries.
Nobody contests the fact that gasoline prices are more than $1.50 more than this time last year per gallon. People do not understand that the city does not pay pump price. The city has a contract price for a significantly lower amount than what the average citizen pays for. I didn't expect that when I got hired that I would have to pay for the privilege of working for Uncle Jerry. Like the title says, ?We didn't even get kissed afterwards!?