Loading ...Operation Saturday Night Fever
Marion County Sheriff Frank Anderson announced a new program yesterday to get illegal guns off the street. Using $100,000 as seed money, Anderson hopes to use the money as a seed fund for Crimestoppers. The money would be used for people who report illegal guns. If you report the gun you get $500, but it must be picked up by the police.
I will give the Sheriff credit. He is taking a step, a small step, but a step nonetheless. My issue with the Sheriff has not been his commitment to public safety, but his absence in the public. I made it a point to do a Google search of the Sheriff to check which news stories he had appeared in talking about crime. I only came up with a handful, prior to yesterday’s news conference.
Anderson told me he’s been doing his job by running the department. I don’t doubt that, but I think it would make a lot of citizens feel better if they saw their Sheriff a lot more often.
March 30th, 2007 at 8:37 am
Let the public see him…because the patrolmen on the streets don’t want to see him.
March 30th, 2007 at 10:29 am
Your are completely right. The most I have heard from law enforcement during this crime wave was a rather long radio interview of Chief Spears doing everything he could do to say “it’s not IMPDs fault.” Maybe a little leadership for a change might help…
March 30th, 2007 at 11:57 am
“I don’t doubt that”…….ask him what the plan is for staffing up the force. After his answer, you’ll doubt it.
March 30th, 2007 at 6:11 pm
This whole “police hate the sheriff and mayor” diatribe is getting real, real old. No doubt some leadership errors have been made. It’s a stale leader who makes no errors. But the merger of departments cemented a stronger budgetary unit for decades.
And, I know several LEOs. I’ve surveyed them. The blog posters do not represent them.
Not scientific, but, again…it’s getting real old. Buil,d a bridge and get over it already.
April 2nd, 2007 at 9:44 am
I wonder how many illegal guns that $500 would buy someone? If I were a crackhead without a warrant, I’d hide my old illegal gun somewhere and report it to authorities. I’d then take my $500, buy a nicer illegal gun, and then I’d use the change to have a nice little party for myself. I’d finish off the party by using my nicer gun to secure the proceeds for my next party.
If I were Frank, here’s what I would do with the $100,000:
Spend $20,000 on basic infrastructure to support 200 volunteer police auxiliary members within troubled neighborhoods. Maybe a badge, an ID, a baseball cap, and a database to log them as registered members. Take the remaining balance of $80,000 and use it to offer an award of $100 for each auxiliary member report that leads to an arrest. You’ll take a lot more than 200 guns off the street and you won’t be financing the next wave of better guns and stronger crack addictions.
What this city needs even more than a $100k incentive program is people with a little bit of common sense.
July 11th, 2007 at 6:57 pm
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