You Do the Math
“We are obviously down some people.” That understatement of the year comes from Jerry McCory, the head of the Marion County Justice Agency about the number of vacant positions in the Indianapolis Metropolitan Police Department. The city is downplaying the fact there are approximately 130 street patrol vacancies at IMPD.
In this morning’s Indianapolis Star, McCory says there 50 new officers in field training and currently teaching another 52 recruits who , assuming they all complete their training and no one drops out, will be on the department by the end of 2008. Well let’s do a little simple math here, assuming nothing changes between now and 2008, the city will add 102 officers. The last time I checked, 130-102 = 28, so the department would be down 28 officers and add the fact another 80 or so officers will retire this year, the city will be down a total of 108 officers, and doesn’t take into account any other future retirements. So no matter how you slice it, this city is still short in a crucial area of public safety.
I don’t know who’s doing the math down at city hall, but it’s starting make me wonder that if we can’t get numbers like this straight, what about the millions in savings that were promised from consolidation?
