Thursday night, Captain Meister gave a very good presentation of all the services that the CPPD currently provides. The City website has the presentation posted in an embedded player on the CPPD page. For those of you who would prefer, I have a PDF1.9MB.
There has been some debate in another thread on the number of people in attendance on Thursday who were relatives and friends of members of the department. I will admit, there were officers there with their spouses, parents and friends. I think that is great. I also know there were people there who simply wanted to get more information and to state their opinion. That is just as great.
We should not forget that we are dealing with a very important decision with long term impact on every citizen of the City and every taxpayer of the City, not to mention the members of the CPPD. We should also not forget that taxpayer does not equal citizen. A significant amount of tax is paid by the businesses in the City and are users of the police services. If this issue were to go to a referendum, much of that tax base would not get a vote.
This is an important decision that should not be made strictly by emotion, nor should it be made strictly by numbers. We need to gather enough information to make a fiscally responsible decision that will ensure every citizen and taxpayer receives the best bang for the tax dollar.
That is, after all, what the members of the Common Council was hired to do, wasn't it?
http://www.pewaukeepatriot.org/article.php/20090912081921554