I challenge any councilor -- especially those who have close relatives
in the police or fire services -- to step into the sunshine and justify
current police & fire manning levels and to compare our manning and our
public safety workloads with that of other localities.  (Extra credit 
given if you include performance data, too).  C'mon, let's see the data.

Mike ,

 

You and I have discussed this before and I have offered to show you the comparisons. Newport is unique, unlike any other community our size when it comes to staffing levels in the area of public safety. Despite what many believe, Newport is not a seasonal destination any more. The city fathers have chosen to market the city as a year round destination, The Winter Fest, Christmas in Newport, the hotels push off season packages etc....these all bring in additional visitors to our city during the "Off Season". Take into account that Salve has done nothing but grow over the years as another factor. As stated in the Daily News, 4 million visitors came into our city last year, you show me a city of Newport's population who handles that type of an influx and basis the manpower on their police department by traditional methods.

 

Some facts to look at, these were compiled within the last year and are as accurate as you will get to date:

 

The crime rate for the city of Newport are second only to Providence per capita. It has been consistently second for the last 15 years or better. The crime rate is determined by a reporting structure determined by the federal government called the Uniform Crime Reporting Act (UCR). It requires each community to report Part One Crimes on a yearly basis. The Rhode Island State Police are the clearing house for Rhode Island and the have the task of compiling and sending them to the Feds. You can find the R.I. UCR reports on the State Police Website. One of the main reasons for the crime rate being what it is, is the diversity of our community. We run the gamut from the very rich to the very poor and everything in between. Take into consideration the transient population, we never know who is coming over the bridge and committing crimes on any given day. While we don't have a high incidence of violent crime, murders etc....there are a good deal of crimes against persons, assaults, domestic violence and the like as well as a high incidence of crimes against property.

 

The most interesting statistic that really defines who we are in terms of workload for the Police Department is when you look at the number of Calls for Service (anytime the police are called for a report of any type) during what the city defines as "the season" May through October. The difference in the number of Calls for Service between the "Season" and the "Off Season" differ by only 5 to 10%. What this tells us is that we are no longer a seasonal community. We are in fact a small community with big city problems.

 

Your police department handled better than 40,000 calls for service last year. No community our size in Rhode Island handled anywhere near that number. In fact the closest community was about half the number. When you look at the calls for service and the crime rate the thing that you need to know is that these are not stats you can play with. They are REAL people, REAL crimes and REAL victims. They are your friends, your family and your neighbors...and yes...maybe you too!

 

The proponents of cutting police service also need to understand that with cuts will come a decrease in response time to calls for service, your police will become reactive instead of proactive. This happens not by choice but by necessity, they become slaves to the radio, constantly answering calls and not being able to do proactive patrol in the neighborhoods. This is the problem the police in Providence are facing in trying to implement and effective community policing program. Newport has become a model for community policing and providing the highest level of police service to it's residents, and has been recognized as such nationally!

 

I'm not sure what the answers are Mike, but to suggest that political cronyism is coming into play when the council is dealing with the police department manning levels is as far off base as I have seen and not fair to the new council. I think they know the reality of the situation as I have put forth above as well as the reality of the fact that the manpower on the police department is spelled out in the collective bargaining agreement with the city. Unlike the city manager they are not so quick to violate the provisions that are set forth by contract.

 

Rick Lombardi