Improving The APD

If elected as Albany’s 76th mayor, I will drastically improve the Albany Police Department.  That is to say that I will do whatever it takes to do what needs to be done.  The position of mayor is not one of absolute power, so it will take some doing to do what I’m about to tell you.  But I’m willing to die on this hill.

I will take a hard, unbiased look at the department’s top leadership and determine whether changes need to be made, with the best interests of the city in mind.

I will work endlessly to slightly reduce the number of officers and detectives as the department can do more with less and still do so in safety.

For the moment, I’m looking at the elimination of 15 officers and 5 detectives.  This will save the city at least $1.5 million a year.  Think of what good could be done elsewhere in the city by trimming the payroll.

If County Executive Dan McCoy gets his wish and we start to share resources with the county, then I would surely increase the number of officers and detectives to be cut.  Maybe 20 officers and 10 detectives gone.

The goal is to make the department run leaner and meaner.

While all of this is happening, Albany can and will be made a safer place.  The cuts that I am proposing will not affect the city’s safety.

Now, I of course can’t make crime stop, but I can and will make Albany a place where criminals will at least think twice before victimizing us.

I acknowledge that Albany has a bit of a crime problem at this moment, but that problem is becoming less severe, to the point that it is doing a little bit better than other cities our size.  The outgoing mayor and the top leadership may want to claim credit for that, but they deserve none.

I can still reduce the APD’s numbers and drastically reduce violent crime.  How?  I will implement a plan to schedule each shift more intelligently. I will assign officers in different areas, also intelligently.

The department’s current assignment methods aren’t working, and that comes at the expense of neighborhoods that need more attention on certain shifts.  We could hire 100 new officers, but nothing would change statistically because of how retarded the department’s current methods are.

This is where intelligence comes in: put more officers on each shift in certain areas by shifting them over from safer neighborhoods that need less attention.

The officers will still be visible and they will get things done, even with minutely and reasonably reduced ranks.

Here are just some of the other ways…

  • I will improve the department’s community outreach programs to ensure the citizens that are city is safe and is well cared for.
  • I will institute a foot patrol and bicycle patrol plan, bringing to mind the days when police actually patrolled on foot.
  • I will have our department partner with various organizations with the goal of making Albany even safer than it is and even better than it is.
  • I will put into effect a plan that ensures that our city’s students can travel to and from school in safety.
  • I will institute a domestic violence task force that gives support on the scene, if needed, to victims and that locks away those who inflict violence upon their partners even more harshly than now.

In other words, Albany, under my leadership, will do more with less.  And it will do so in safety.  I will make that happen, no matter what scumbags get in my way do.

With my method of saving taxpayer money in the department and elsewhere, it’s only a matter of time before you see results in the form of potential reduction of property taxes.  Sure, cuts in the APD will affect local donut shops’ bottom line, but for the rest of us, my proposed cuts are good news.