Obviously, these are dire economic times and DeKalb County is not immune. As the newly elected C.E.O., Burrell Ellis assumed a 40 million dollar deficit for 2009. It is Mr. Ellis’s responsibility to insure the citizens of DeKalb County have the services they need, be it roads, refuge collection, clean water or most importantly, public safety.
Just as with any business, or household, when anticipated funds are not there, adjustments have to be made. Just think how much you would miss all that money you make from your extra jobs? If tomorrow you were told you were no longed needed, you would have to make adjustments, and cut back on spending.
We are realist. When the 40 million dollar deficit was made public, we anticipated cuts in budgets and spending and even hiring freezes. And so far, we would have done the same as C.E.O. Ellis. The police department is not the only one feeling the pinch. We do have the largest portion of the counties budget, so our pinch hurts just a little bit more.
So far, there hasn’t been any talk of furloughs. Our brothers in arms with the Atlanta Police Department are being furloughed 8 hours per week/32 hours a month. Just imagine losing almost a week’s pay each month. Would you have to cut back at home? Of course you would.
Bolton, while chief of police, has handed out nearly 300 take home cars. These cars can be driven as far as 35 miles from the county line. Like, Keisha, you could almost live in Alabama and stop and get a Margarita or 4 on the way home. But most of the cars are not essential to the everyday operation of the department. Initially take home cars were given to the persons most likely to be called out on a regular basis for a major incident, such as the Major Crimes and Sex Crimes Units.
But Bolton has used the program as a “pert package” for his cronies who, in turn pass out take home cars to their cronies. A few examples of people or units that have take home cars and are never called out or it is never anticipated they will be called out are: Crime Analysis, Inspections, Motor Officers, Staff Aides, Taxi Unit, Record Room Director, TRT Commanders, District Net Teams, ICP, Keisha Williams, Chief Bolton’s Drivers. How many times have these people actually been called out? Maybe to lunch.
You also have to examine how many of those people with assigned cars live outside the county, not here where they are employed. Ellis is considering reducing the number of take home cars to 80. The only ones at this point who need take home cars are Major Crimes, Crime Scene.
Ellis is doing this to save money, to keep us all working 40 hours a week, and deliver to the citizens of DeKalb County what they pay for. They are certainly not paying for the luxury of non-essential people enjoying the perks of a take home car.
When this plan takes effect, it will be interesting to see how Bolton handles it. Will the divide between the have and have not even grow larger? We bet so.
DeKalb County Police is a major metropolitan department. Maybe it is time to start acting like one. Crime is uncontrollable and homicides routinely surpass 100 each year. It is time for a 24 hour/7 day a week Criminal Investigations Unit, just like other large departments. All those 300 cars could become pool cars to use while working, not driving home or to the lake, ball field or extra job.
Are we carrying Ellis’s flag? Not yet. But we don’t want to be furloughed anytime soon. We would give up a take home car in order for that not to happen to us, or our fellow officers. The taxpayers, who pay our checks deserve more.
Friday, January 23, 2009
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27 comments:
I think the Special operations unit should keep their vehicles. We need the units and they have been called out. You have 50 take home cars for ICP already and many more people who you said it never get called out. What will happen when the county has a call out and an officer gets in an accident responding to a call but must first go get their car? Can you say LAW SUIT? Lets get back to the basics here allow take home cars to those who do get called out from the house and away from there family and who have there schedules changed every other week.
Well written and fair, thank you. The unemployment rate in Georgia rose to over 8% this month. We have a large budget shortfall in DeKalb. I'm sure that balancing a budget in this economic climate was not an easy task for the new CEO.
I don't begrudge giving up my sick check and merit raise for a year. Does it mean, with the pension increase, that I may actually be making less this year than last year? Yes. But it also means that I keep my job and I continue working 40-hours a week. There is precious little that is more important than job security and it's quite a blessing that current officers have that right now.
I am not enamoured of eliminating take-home cars for those units who really need them -- CID, SWAT, etc. Imagine the response time when a Major Felony detective has to drive his POV (absent lights and sirens) to headquarters, pick up a vehicle, and then respond to a homicide scene. What happens when a detective gets in a wreck in their POV because they're trying to get to that scene?
24-hour coverage would be wonderful. But many CID units are stretched to the point of breaking trying to cover the hours they already work. Can we afford to take more officers off the street right now to bolster those units? I'm not sure that we can.
I think that there are still some difficult times ahead for the county because of issues that don't necessarily have anything to do with the CEO or the Chief. I'm very glad that I don't have to balance the budget, that's for sure.
Amen. Nuff said.
Ya know some of your comments are just down right wrong or at the least misleading. Do you have any idea as to the history of this place?
Yes, Chief Bolton has increased the take home car program to SOME people. We all know how you hate the idea of ICP and their take home cars. You could say this was a kick start for his program to get everyone take home cars. Take home cars have been assigned to non-sworn personnel and others far in advance of Chief Bolton working here. So please don't make it sound like Bolton added 300 cars to the program. Keep with the facts and you'll do fine. As an example TAC has ridden their motorcycles home since the Burgess era and Dora Tabb has had a take home car for a very long time. Captains, Majors, and Chiefs have also had take home cars since the Burgess era. This is just to name a few. Also since Director Williams is filling a Chiefs spot guess what, she'll be keeping her car. But no worries plenty of officers and detectives will soon be getting the shaft.
Now to your argument about saving the County money. Again as I've stated before the County has always had it's best interest at heart. Maybe you didn't have to suffer through the years of Maloof and Levetan without cost of living raises and a beginning salary that was a joke but there are those of us here who did. If someone has been able to get a take home car due to their position, rank, or whatever good for them. If you don't think people are going to fight tooth and nail to keep whatever scrap they can get from this place you are sadly mistaken.
CEO Ellis wants to cut back huh? Well allocating over 250k a year for an outdated Director of Public Safety and aide doesn't sound like it to me. 250k buys alot of gas. How much in cutbacks is coming from the BOC staff and CEO office? Let me guess....
Ya know I've supported alot of what's said on this website but now you couldn't be more wrong. I'm guessing you're some POII or MPO with an axe to grind because you couldn't pass a promotional exam and CID, TAC, TRT, SpecOps, Homeland, and any other specialized unit didn't want your sorry ass.
But hey you just keep up with your blind hatred of all that is Chief Bolton and everything will be just peachy.
At least we aren't getting furloughed like Atlanta. I will tell you I'd happily give up the MPO incentive so that ALL officers could get their merit raises back. I want the guy or gal backing me on a call to be happy at work. Not stressing over their money and not paying attention to their job.
Please tell me Bolton does not have drivers. Is there no end to his waste of taxpayer money??? The taxpayers are behind public safety. There is an outpouring of support for you because we all know crime is high.
Chief, do you drive a Range Rover? Even if it was taken from the impound lot the maintenance, gas and insurance are sky high. This is a total abuse of taxpayer money and you need to change your ways TODAY! - A Mad Taxpayer
The proposals coming down are that SWAT will be a 24 hour unit with regular shifts and no take home cars, and CID will either have a morning watch that will handle all crimes or only the desingated on call person from each unit will have a take home, for that night only (some units desiginate the on call detective for a week, so there would be a take home for that week only). The problem with a morning watch CID is that it will really be a Major Felony CID. One murder will shut down the unit. So if there is one murder in one precinct, if any other precinct gets a car theft or burglary with a suspect in custody, oh well! Handle it, CID will not respond.
To Anonymous: TeBo has 4 drivers and all with take home cars. Believe it or not, one of the drivers is a Sgt. and three officers/detectives.
Im on a District NET Team, I wasnt aware that we had take home cars. Maybe I didnt get the memo. Get your facts straight
why would anyone want to work CID. Ok, you have to take a test, interview, for twice the work, ten times the responsibility with absolutely no perks?? Everyone knows that main reason a person wants to go to CID is the take home car, which makes it worth it.
4 Drivers??? One per shift or just 4 as in excessive? If he only had one driver that would be 3 more car to put out on the street (3 take home cars too) without a budget increase.
As a taxpayer, I'm all for take home vehicles, but only for those unit's that absolutely need them. Take home vehicles for TeBo's drivers? WTF? Take home vehicles for civilian personnel? Again, WTF?
The public deserves a list of every position with a take home vehicle, and a reason why its needed. I'll gladly spend my tax money on take home vehicle, but it has to be for the right staff, and not the Keisha Margarita's.
Check your facts. There already is a morning watch detective in Major Felony, not great but I'm sure it helps some. As far as Special Operations, they get called out quite frequently. The night Officers Barker and Bryant were murdered, they were called out after MF, before other detectives. But this shouldn't be about who gets called out most.
Whether you have a take home car or not everyone should be outraged that once again the rank and file officers, the backbone of this department will be taking it in the shorts. Why are the ones that work the long hours getting crapped on again? We did not cause this problem, yet we will suffer from it.
No matter who runs the department for most of us, our jobs never change. We go out everyday, enforce the laws and go home. It would be nice to have some one in charge here that realizes this, and treats us with the respect we deserve.
So Dekalb is 40 Million in the hole?? lets do some math...
Raise taxes like every other metro county does $200.00 a year to cover emergency services
lets say 125,000 homes in Dekalb ok there is 30 million,, so instead of doing what every other county does. Ok yes DeKalb residence police and emergency services are not free. Im sick of hearing "I pay your salary" so freakin start paying
"Raise taxes like every other metro county does $200.00 a year to cover emergency services"
That's plan out ignorant. You check for efficiency and savings first before raising taxes. More money is not the answer if the money isn't being spent right in the first place, like paying Keisha's big salary, take home car and other perks.
Why would a major felony detective run lights and siren to a murder or armed robbery? Major Felony does not respond to crimes in progress, they let the uniform officers handle it. Then they respond. The only people that respond from home to a crime in progress is your SWAT team. Special Ops, TSU, Homeland, CSU, Auto Theft, Gen Theft, Burglary, Fraud just to name a few all do not respond to crimes in progress. Take some of that gas money you have saved for years with your take home car, and get ready to start filling up your own tanks.
It seems to me that alot of the venting about take home cars is out of jealousy. Whats the big deal about whether or not another officer has a take home car or not. I believe the goal was to get every officer a take home car. I would assume if one wanted a take home car that bad, they could go to a unit that has take home cars. Its also a great recruiting perk and a reason for staying on the department. There are plenty of local agencies where every officer has a take home car. It could always be worse, Atlanta Police is Hiring! No take home cars, nor raises for 9 years straight. 1 day furlough every two weeks etc...
Everybody is talking about take home cars. We all know that if is going to happen it will happen and there is nothing we can do about it. I only have one question though. I thought that some of the vehicles are paid for by grants? I remember when DeKalb lost a federal grant because they started messing around and not following the grant requirements (I.E. HITDA) and made a big 46-news story. What is the county going to do when they get this money taken away from the feds by taking vehicles which are paid for by grants and using it somewhere else? Wouldn't this just but them more in dept? Your department needs to keep good officers employed who can protect the citizens of this great county. I have voiced my opinion to my commissioner about letting officers’ keep take home cars and I hope that other citizens will do the same. I hope all of you good officers on this department will keep up the great work. God Bless
No jealousy involved...it's simple common sense. Oh I know, that little thing that captains and above are bereft of. It makes no sense, Mr Crybaby Apologist, to have nonessential units (ICP, Crime Analysis, District NET teams, Dora Tabb, etc) given take home cars when there aren't enough units for Patrol and CID. Captains and above have forgotten where they came from, unless you are from Atlanta, then you weren't from here to start with. But, I think, the forgetfulness is a byproduct of the lobotomy that most undergo when promoted to those lofty positions (Col Klink and Austin POwers immediately come to mind). Oh well.
Correct me if I am wrong, but didn't Ellis say he was only cutting the police budget by less than 1%? So where is this "need" to take away take home cars for Detectives coming from?? Could someone tell us why this is a necessary move if only 1% of the police budget is being cut?? How can someone honestly suggest there is a need to take away take home cars from Detectives when the idea of buying a THIRD helicopter is being tossed around? Three helicopters? The only time both helicopters are in the air at the same time is police officer funerals. I don't know why we have two, but now they want three when we supposedly have to cut take home cars for Detectives?
This doesn't make sense.
Rumor has that Lt.s and above in CID are "safe" as far as keeping their cars. Now that makes sense as they are the LAST ones to respond to a scene! Seems like Detectives and Sgt.s would be the ones to keep the cars, but wait, that's too much like right.
To: "I Seen It Myself", we need more information. Please contact us!
The take home car is also an incentive for officers to take certain positions, all of CID for example. When one is transferred to a detective position, there is no pay raise. So why would one subject themselves to the stress for nothing? Give them the car and pay their gas.
They are nuts if they take Major Felony cars away. If they do, BOLT to uniform. Wheres the pay day for working Major Felony?
Drivers !!!??? Why does the Chief have a DRIVER.No other police chief in Dekalb ever had a driver. Not even Director Hand or Director Brown. Manuel Maloof drove his own car and his personal car to boot. Where is all this overly important crap coming from? This sounds like more Vernon Jones pompas to me.
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