Up & Coming Weekly

April 29, 2014

Up and Coming Weekly is a weekly publication in Fayetteville, NC and Fort Bragg, NC area offering local news, views, arts, entertainment and community event and business information.

Issue link: http://www.epageflip.net/i/303912

Contents of this Issue

Navigation

Page 19 of 32

APRIL 30 - MAY 6, 2014 UCW 19 WWW.UPANDCOMINGWEEKLY.COM and must not be overlooked. Further, metropolitan police consolidation is often a very expensive and not a taxpayer savings process. For example, for the city of Fayetteville police force, the Cumberland County Sheriff's Office, the Hope Mills Police Department, and the Spring Lake Police Department to be merged into a single unit, the salaries and pay rates of all of those officers would have to be substantially increased to match the amounts paid to the Fayetteville officers, immediately causing a substantial increase in expense. In addition, the costs of replacing and even "re-branding" the equipment, the officers uniforms, and the like would be a tremendous expense. In addition, while the Cumberland County Sheriff's Office and the other agencies other than the city of Fayetteville use the voice interoperability (VIPER) radio communications system which the Highway Patrol and the state use, the city of Fayetteville has recently chosen not to use that system and to connect its communication system with the city of Durham. Changing and replacing radio communications systems would, therefore, be nearly cost prohibitive. The North Carolina Constitution requires each county to have an elected sheriff. The law does not require a police department even in a single city system like the city of Fayetteville or in a metropolitan system like Charlotte-Mecklenburg. Therefore, a sheriff's office would still be required to be maintained: in the case of Mecklenburg County, the budget for the Mecklenburg sheriff's office last year was One Hundred Eight Million Dollars ( $108,000,000.00) not including the budget for the metropolitan police department. Even counties which are more urban than Cumberland County or which are similar in size and make up have not thought metropolitan police merger to be wise. For example, Forsyth County, which is only slightly larger and is for all intents and purposes similar in population size to Cumberland County has not sought a change in the law to seek a police agency merger; neither has Wake County sought such a merger despite the dominance of Raleigh in that county; nor has Guilford County despite the large urban areas of Greensboro and High Point within that county. There are, however, some things that could be improved and benefitted by city and county action. For example establishing a single communication system using the same radio communications and devices would be cost saving and deliver better services to the residents of the city and the county. Another example, includes the need for a countywide single dispatch system, which would allow dispatchers under the auspices of such a city-county dispatch center to report a call or need for service to the closest vehicle without regard to agency designation. An extremely important example, would be the formation of a city- county crime laboratory, modeled after the CCB I in Raleigh and Wake County which would enable quicker more reliable criminal processing of forensic evidence. I firmly believe, however, that the will of the people should control. While I believe that there are more reasons not to seek a metropolitan police merger, the will of the people must govern for this is still a government of the people, by the people and for the people. Property crimes and assaults are on the rise in Cumberland County, with limited staff covering a large area, how can you protect personal property? And what can be done to decrease the number of assaults in the community? The crime reports and statistics for Cumberland County (that is, the large area outside the city of Fayetteville) do not show any significant increase in property crimes or assaults. In fact, property crimes decreased for the last two years and they are on track to show a decrease for this year. Admittedly, property crimes have increased substantially within the municipalities, as have assaults, but property crimes in the county have decreased and assaults were up only at most 4% in the past year in the large area outside of the city. We have stepped up patrols, and we are using criminal intelligence information and predictive analysis to fight property crimes. Of great import, however, is the vigilance of citizens who have assisted us greatly by reporting suspicious activity and providing us with leads which have enabled us to successfully prosecute the to have damaged and destroyed property. Since 1997, the Cumberland County Sheriff's office has been recognized and commended for its excellent Community Oriented Policing Services. Community policing helps to protect against the theft and destruction of personal property. Importantly, community watch programs are of great benefit in fighting property crimes and other criminal conduct. Community watch members are eyes and ears of law enforcement in the community, and they help us tremendouaiding us in protecting life and property. Community watch programs and neighborhood involvement held not only in property crimes, but also in setting a standard of conduct which seems to be of benefit in preventing assaults. Admittedly, however, assaults are not predictable and difficult to prevent because of the way in which they occur. Domestic violence assaults are among the most common in Cumberland County, and it is our mission to attempt to use every community resource to stop this assaultive behavior. It is not law enforcement, however, that can prevent these assaults, it must begin in the home and spread through the community, setting a community standard of civil and proper conduct. Cumberland County has one of the highest crime rate in the nation. Where do we go and what's the fix? Actually, the question is misleading in that at Cumberland County outside the city of Fayetteville does not have one of the highest crime rates. The 2012 - 2013 statistical year as the previous 2 years showed significant decreases in crime across the board, but particularly in violent crimes. Reports of crime in Cumberland County being up are those which include the crimes for the City. As you may know, while we continue to hear that crime is up here, but that is not true for the parts of Cumberland County which are not inside the Fayetteville city limits. Crime in Cumberland County - other than the City of Fayetteville --- is down. When the numbers for the City of Fayetteville are included, the crime rate for Cumberland County is higher, but the actual raw data shows the county numbers are down. That is the way that the SBI reports them. The City and County numbers are reported to the SBI and their agency merges them together, and they report them as the numbers for all of Cumberlanthe crime statistical report, showing yet another annual decrease crime for the areas of Cumberland County outside the City of Fayetteville. The 2012 - 2013 statistical year as the previous 2 years showed significant decreases in crime across the board, but particularly in violent crimes. Reports of crime in Cumberland County being up are those which include the crimes for the city. As you may know, while we continue to hear that crime is up in Fayetteville, but that is not true for the parts of Cumberland County which are not inside the Fayetteville city limits. Crime in Cumberland County — other than the City of Fayetteville — is down. When the numbers for the City of Fayetteville are included, the crime rate for Cumberland County is higher, but the actual raw data shows the county numbers are down. That is the way that the SBI reports them. The City and County numbers are reported to the SBI and their agency merges them together, and they report them as the numbers for all of Cumberland County. For this year, the numbers for Fayetteville also (for the 2014) year show about a decline even in the City, and the numbers for Cumberland County show a similarly significant decrease in crime. As to the question before what is the fix for the crime problem in this area, no single individual, not even I, can say that there is a single fix for the crime problem. We can win it, however, but this battle requires involvement from all across the community and the multiple approaches and multiple solutions that have been proposed that the symposium and the various meetings that have been conducted are excellent ones. The most important point, however, is that it requires the entire community to become committed to stopping criminal behavior, supporting law enforcement, and seeking justice. With dwindling state and federal funding, how do you see the board meeting the needs of the citizens without drastic cuts to programs or tax increases? My idea would be a flat tax for the county and eliminate the irs in the county if we have a internal revenue service for the county if possible. What is your vision for funding of the school system ? Education walkathons bazzar bash for the community to set a account to save money maybe fundraising. Maybe short-term idea to get money back into the school system. What is the biggest problem facing Cumberland County and how do we fix it? Crime & Homelessness- Crime and being homeless kinda interact. Those who are homeless need a community center and have no job are usually ones creating the crimes. Getting into the community and talking finding out what skills people have when talking to them. The county has long depended on Fort Bragg's growth to ease some economic concerns. With the decreasing force structure, cutting of government contracts and the hiring freeze on Bragg, where will the county turn to create jobs and build the economy? Manufacturing jobs need to be brought back, less taxes, lower gas prices and energy costs. What are your top three priorities if elected? Trying get jobs back into the county to help it grow, helping the homeless because like I said part of the crime problem is some homeless people struggle and it takes a toll on them to do crimes and higher education to get books back into schools that teach about man walking on the moon, the declaration of independence, the U.S. Constitution, Revolutionary War and Civil War. We want children to know our history of our country like I was taught growing up. Sharman Tober ELECTION GUIDE CUMBERLAND COUNTY COMMISSIONER

Articles in this issue

Links on this page

Archives of this issue

view archives of Up & Coming Weekly - April 29, 2014