The right tools
According to Marion City Commission, there have been complaints about the police department, particularly in number of cars.
To the commission's credit, they don't seem to be swallowing these complaints. However, they do make the old mistake of using the phrase "A lot of people are saying
To the commission (and to every other elected body), I respond with two questions:
1. How many is "a lot?"
2. What is the current population of Marion? (Six people can seem like a lot, especially if they're angry, but they are a minuscule percentage of the actual population our officials represent.)
We can't ignore the fact that the department has more vehicles than in the past. It has more officers, four, and may grow to five if a start-up grant is received to help pay another officer's wages.
Each officer has a patrol car, which are former Kansas Highway Patrol security cars.
Why not share cars?
Chief David Mayfield says it helps with maintenance — each officer is responsible for keeping their car clean and serviced. More importantly, it ensures everyone has the proper gear at all times.
I might add that in Oklahoma City a few years back, each officer was required to take a patrol car home — and leave it in the driveway. They have a deterrent effect on crime, even when it was obvious the officer wasn't on duty.
But does each officer need a car?
Certainly not. Based on department history, officers don't need bullets, firearms, or body armor, either. Rarely has a Marion police officer fired a weapon in the line of duty, and only one has been killed in the line of duty.
Most of the incidents Marion officers face are property crimes.
But this isn't about stolen mowers or possession of pot. We outfit our officers in such a way that if people show up with violence on the mind, the cops have a better chance of stopping them. We pay to train them in negotiation, so they can restore calm through discussion. We teach them self-defense, so they can subdue a person even while that person is trying to kick the officer in the crotch.
And we give them shotguns and pistols so they can kill, if necessary.
Officers only "need" individual cars in emergencies. The department could function without them. But if you're the one with the angry ex-spouse coming up the sidewalk, you don't want officers to first drive around town, trying to locate an available patrol car.
It's important to hold police departments to high standards. It's wrong to set a high standard without giving the department the tools to do the job.
To do so would be almost criminal.
— MATT NEWHOUSE
