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W. K. Gordon, III
David W. Tuthill
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01/03/06
Don't do the crime, if you can't do the time!
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If we get nothing else done but pass a law to tow
cars of uninsured motorists, then this council will have finally done something
good for Dallas residents and taxpayers. |
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I want to take it several steps further. I want
to arrest the uninsured driver. I want to put their vehicle (car or truck)
in the city pound. I want to set up a system that dedicates the proceeds
from the sale of impounded cars of uninsured drivers to new hires for the Dallas
Police Department. |
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01/04/06 Dwaine
Caraway:
I support towing the cars of uninsured drivers. I've had two
cars (one was a Mercedes) totaled by uninsured drivers. A third was damaged
by another uninsured driver. As my wife says 'It's the law, and they
are breaking the law by driving without insurance.' |
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Four years ago, we had a chance to raise our police officers' salaries so that
we were competitive with nearby municipalities. We were not going to match
Ft. Worth, but we at least would be above Grand Prairie. The Dallas
Managed News, Our Downtown Betters (the ODB) and even Mayor Miller opposed that
referendum. Now, the DMN is admitting the difference in Ft. Worth being a
safe city and Dallas being the #1 crime capital of the country is all about the
money our respective police officers are paid.
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Money makes FW safer
than Dallas;
Money helped launch community policing efforts
Sunday, January
1, 2006 By
JEFF MOSIER / The Dallas Morning News |
A recent list naming Dallas one of
the most dangerous big cities in America and Fort Worth one of the safest
left many people scratching their heads.
... Some Dallas officials think they know the
answer: money. Fort Worth sets aside a half-cent of sales tax ? $43.5
million annually ? for crime-fighting and crime-prevention efforts.
... When the Morgan Quitno Press report was
released in November, Dallas was ranked as the fifth-most-dangerous city
with more than 500,000 residents, and Fort Worth was ninth-safest. The
Kansas-based publisher based its rankings on 2004 FBI crime statistics
reported by the cities.
Ralph Mendoza, Fort Worth's police
chief, said the Crime Control and Prevention
District has made his job and his officers' jobs easier.
... A decade after that initial flood of money,
Fort Worth is in the middle of the pack on police
spending per capita, Chief Mendoza said.
... Fort Worth's annual police budget amounts to
$278 per resident, while Dallas spends $270. For Dallas to catch up, it
would have to add nearly $10 million to a $333 million police budget.
... Jeff Ferrell, a criminal justice professor at
Texas Christian University, said that while Dallas stuck with a more
traditional "catch and arrest" approach, Fort Worth became a leader in the
community policing movement.
... One example in southeast Fort Worth is a pilot
program that assigns a prosecutor to handle "quality of life" violations
such as code compliance, manifestation of prostitution, possession of drug
paraphernalia and illegal dumping.
The reasoning is that ignoring minor
offenses leads to an atmosphere where more serious crime can thrive.
...
The Fort Worth crime tax also funds graffiti abatement and security
at city parks, pays for some community policing officers and buys new
equipment for officers.
... Since becoming Dallas' police chief in 2004,
David Kunkle has also promoted a new community policing plan to make
officers responsible for lowering crime in small areas instead of answering
calls throughout the division.
Dr. Ferrell said it looks as if Chief
Kunkle has brought badly needed stability and a new direction to the
department.
... The Dallas Police Department is also receiving
a multiyear $15 million grant from the W.W. Caruth Jr. Foundation Fund of
the Communities Foundation of Texas to help with crime prevention and
reduction. That will bring the police funding closer to Fort Worth's level.
... The Bass family, who
developed Sundance Square, provides private security to keep that portion of
downtown Fort Worth safe. That eases some of the burden on the
Police Department while shoppers, diners and club patrons feel safe.
... |
Isn't that a novel idea? A Ft. Worth
Billionaire family spending its money to better the community as compared to a
Dallas Billionaire Son of a Bigamist spending our money to better his real
estate ventures.
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I want to take it several steps further. I want
to arrest the uninsured driver. I want to put their vehicle (car or truck)
in the city pound. I want to set up a system that dedicates the proceeds
from the sale of impounded cars of uninsured drivers to new hires for the Dallas
Police Department. |
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01/04/06 Mike
Perry:
I STRONGLY support towing cars of uninsured
drivers. I have been involved in two separate accidents where the
driver not only had no insurance but had no driver's
license.
I would like to see this taken a step
further. If a
driver with no insurance is stopped for any
driving infraction, their car is impounded before
an accident happens.
By STATE LAW, people who do not have
insurance are not to be driving any vehicle
regardless of whether they live in South or
North Dallas. |
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It really does come down to money. Ft. Worth spends a hunk of its sales
tax on public safety. Dallas spends a big hunk of our sales tax revenue to
build a basketball/hockey arena. A wealthy family in Ft. Worth spends
millions (and gets millions back from its successful venture) to bring life and
action and vitality to Downtown Ft. Worth. That same family even built a
performance hall in Downtown Ft. Worth and GAVE it to the city.
Things work so much differently in Dallas. We cut benefits for all of our
public employees (civilian and public safety), but we give tax abatements to
Billionaires.
I'm not sure we can reverse that picture, because the people who run Ft. Worth
are actually FROM Ft. Worth. Many of the people on our city council and
board and commissions are not even native Texans, much less from Dallas.
They have left other cities and states and want to make Dallas over into the
place they chose to leave. Where do those of us go who don't want to live
in a city like what the Dallas ODB want?
Let's go back to the designated funds from the sale of impounded vehicles taken
from uninsured drivers.
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When a car is not claimed from the pound for 30 days, it is sold at auction.
Why can't we designate the sale profits from sold cars taken from uninsured
drivers to a special fund for DPD personnel? Until we get the manpower up
to where Chief Kunkle wants (700 new hires), the sale profits could go to fund
new hires. |
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01/04/06 James
Northrup:
Impounding uninsured vehicles
should be a profit center.
Another "enterprise" revenue producer
for the DPD would be to put
cameras on intersections to catch and fine red light runners. |
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We cannot allow the City Manager/City Council to reduce the DPD's current budget
with the expectation of using the sold car profits to make up the difference.
This may seem simplistic of me, but most problems are best solved with simple
solutions. Smoke and mirror budgets and band aids like the Verified
Response plan to burglar alarms are not solutions, they are camouflage.
Rad Field reports:
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I'm beginning to get some feedback from State Senators... doing a residence
and not business may be contrary to SB 568 intent and/or
wording. Stand by..
It appears that the intent was all or none when it comes to VR. |
The numbers justifying Verified Response never made
sense even when applied to total VR response. Limiting it to business will
not generate the savings in manpower that justify the anguish and political ill
will that resulted from the council approving the compromise. I'm not sure
anything will be done to reverse VR in 2006 because the Legislature won't be in
session this year.
I'm am sure we must immediately do something about uninsured drivers on our
streets. It's not like they are not breaking the law. That makes
them criminals. If you can't afford car insurance, you need to use mass
transit.
A friend of mine had a road rage incident a few weeks ago that involved an
uninsured driver who had been arrested for a DWI and ticketed for no insurance
coverage last summer. Same uninsured driver had another criminal arrest,
and then had another DWI after damaging my friend's car in a hit and run related
to the road rage incident. There was more than $2,000 in damages to my
friend's car. Unlike most of us, my friend has the resources to identify
that uninsured driver. Unfortunately, even though he had pictures and
could identify the uninsured hit and run driver, nothing has happened to the
road rager -and he is out there waiting to damage your car or worse.
I don't want to stop with the cars. I want those uninsured drivers
arrested and jailed. They are law breakers. If you disregard one
law, it's very likely you disregard other laws.
People who disregard basic city ordinances like not parking their cars on their
yards are people who will break other laws. They think they are special
and exempt from community regulations. Or, worse, they are lawless bums.
We cannot have a successful city if a growing number of people disregard our
laws. No city can prosper when anarchy rules the streets.
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Mayor Miller and the other council members who
support towing cars driven by uninsured motorists are on the right track.
Hope they don't try to effect some politically correct compromise that says
if you're poor you are exempt from the law. |
sb
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