Editorials

Anniston's police department does an excellent job of training other cities' law enforcers.

The reasons are easy enough. Anniston officers earning a meager salary can move to suburban forces and in the process increase their salaries and reduce the amount of crime they face.

As one former Anniston officer who took a $14,000 raise for a job on an out-of-state police force says of his former Anniston coworkers, "They are doing a thankless and hard job for very little pay."

National experts and Anniston officials agree that longevity and continuity are important to building an effective police force. Hard to do that when low pay and high stress drive Anniston's finest to greener, safer and more supportive pastures.

Money isn't the answer, but without more of it dedicated to public safety, Anniston will continue to spin its wheels.

The city's fiscal 2008 budget dedicates $5.6 million to policing. While that figure could stand to rise, how it should be spent is just as important.

Neighborhood-based policing and citizen patrols are but two of various alternative strategies employed by other cities with Anniston's problem. According to a 2000 Justice Department study, "In Chicago's problem-solving model for policing, a 'problem' is defined as a group of related incidents or an ongoing situation that concerns a significant portion of those who live or work in a particular area. A problem is also persistent — it is unlikely to disappear without active intervention of some magnitude — and must potentially be solved using police and community resources, because not everything is within their power."

The report adds, "A problem need not be a serious criminal matter."

Let's add that left neglected, those minor problems can (and have in Anniston's case) grow into serious setbacks.

Policing is but one of several wheels any city needs to roll down the road of progress. Among the list of priorities any city faces, public safety ranks right up at the top.

Don't spend the money wisely for this priority and a city will pay, and dearly.

Combating crime
An editorial page series

The story so far: In the first part of the series, this space laid out that many Anniston residents sense crime is worsening. Making the city safer will require attacking perception and reality.