Life Of Jason

An article in today’s Springfield News-Leader says a Missouri State University Center for Research and Service poll is showing a slip in citizen’s confidence in Springfield police.   78% of 953 respondents said that the Springfield Police Department was meeting the community’s needs.  That’s down from 89% in 2006.  (The highest over the last fourteen years has been 90%.)

The last time approval was this low was in 2000 when, like now, we’re experiencing an increase in crime rates.   Figures released on Wednesday said major crime in the city was up 8.5% in 2007.  The major concern of most survey respondents was drug crime.

According to the News-Leader story, Springfield Police Chief Lynn Rowe emphasized there could be any number of reasons for the drop in approval — not just rising crime.

“Certainly we have to think there’s possibly a nexus between those two, but we don’t have a way to definitively prove that,” Rowe said. “There are a lot of pieces to that puzzle.”

When I read the piece, that was my first thought as well although the crime rate certainly is a major factor.  I’ve been thinking about writing a blog entry on crime in Springfield for a while based on a conversation I had after the last council meeting with Councilman Dan Chiles.

We were talking about the green building plan and I commented how I was walking all over downtown to save on gas (and therefore reducing my carbon footprint.)  I spoke of my “ten song rule” (where I put on my MP3 player and if something’s within ten songs I’ll walk to it versus driving) and how the Council chambers were at the fringe of ten song distance.  The conversation started turning toward my walking to council meetings when the weather warms but then I really felt a chill when I thought about walking through the square and up Boonville to City Hall.  I had to admit to Councilman Chiles that I wouldn’t feel safe walking through that area in the evening with my laptop computer.

I shared with him an incident that happened last summer when I was volunteering with a ministry downtown.  They were located in a loft behind the Heer’s Tower and they provided bread for the homeless in Springfield.  One afternoon when we were wrapping up bread donated by Panera we heard some shouting outside and saw two men arguing next to the bus station.  We watched for a few minutes and then went back to what we had been doing.  Then we heard the screaming.

We ran down to the street and saw one of the men who had been arguing on the sidewalk and blood around him.  Someone started shouting that they had been stabbed.  People who I guessed were friends of the victim were around him and knowing nothing about first aid we just went upstairs and said a prayer for them.

I remember going back outside a little while later after the commotion had died down and walking across the street where the dried blood was still on the sidewalk.  It was a surreal kind of feeling knowing that just a little while earlier someone’s life blood was spilled there for likely no good reason.  It was also the first time I really didn’t feel safe in downtown Springfield after dark.

Now, it could be easy for me to say I don’t have confidence in our police because of that incident and the fact that I really don’t feel like I could walk to a council meeting on a Monday night because I believe I would be hassled between the square and the Council chambers.  However, like Chief Rowe said, I can’t say it’s because of rising crime.

The problems with the police and fire pension plan are well known (and in the survey 74% of respondents supported using a proposed 1/4-cent sales tax increase to fund a deficit in the Police and Fire Pension fund. )  I’ve commented on the blog before about the struggles Springfield has had gaining and retaining qualified officers.  If they aren’t fully staffed and don’t have more officers on the street it’s impossible for us to expect them to maintain the same level of coverage as Springfield grows.  However, it’s likely some of the knocks against them in the survey come from people who expect blanket coverage for a patch price.

Another factor is the fact many think their actions shouldn’t have an effect on crime.  In the survey, 63% of respondents felt they could take some action to reduce crime.  The fact that 37% of the people spoken to don’t believe they can have an effect on crime is a disturbing statistic.   I don’t know if we need to increase education or if this is just a case of apathy rearing it’s ugly head.  A citizen does have a right to feel safe in their community and expect the police to help maintain that order but a citizen is also part of a community and as such has responsibility to that community.  If you leave your car running outside your house unlocked in an area that has a high crime rate then you’re asking for trouble.  It’s the same as if you leave an item sitting in your front yard overnight and then getting upset when it’s gone in the morning.   A few little extra steps on your part can help protect your items and reduce overall crime.  It’s not rocket science.

I’m also leery of responses in a survey like when the report says 77 % of those who had contact with police in the last year felt officers were “fair, courteous and respectful.” A question like that is unfairly worded because we don’t know the contact those people had with the officers.  If they’re surveying a person whose relative was arrested and jailed because of a crime they committed then they’ll likely not say good things about the police or the officers regardless of whether or not they really were “fair, courteous and respectful.”  A better survey would be to ask the question and show the parts of town where it was asked, the crime rate in those areas and find out if those being surveyed had been arrested or had someone they know arrested or cited within the year.

I’ve had a few contacts with the police over the last year and every time found them to be professional and courteous as possible in the situation.  In one case, I saw someone climbing up the deck railing into a second floor apartment in my complex.  (Turned out it was the guy who lived there and he had locked himself out but I had no way to know that.)   When the police arrived on scene and I told them what I saw they took off for the apartment with a gruff “thank you.”  I could see where someone would think that rude but I understood being super friendly at that moment was far below the importance of finding out if a burglar was inside that apartment.  After they found out what was going on, they even came back to my apartment to explain to me what had happened.

So it’s a definite mixed bag.  I don’t have a lack of confidence in the police we have in Springfield nor do I in Chief Lynn Rowe.  (Whom outside of one conversation at the last town hall meeting I have never spoken with at length.)   I believe as a whole our police are doing a good job and that they’re all human beings who will have a bad day.  We can’t expect perfection from them and I’m sure Chief Rowe understands that as well.

Keep in mind that 78% is still a very good percentage.  78% will be called a mandate if that’s the percentage of vote a candidate receives.  78% of Congress overrides a veto.  It’s still more than three out of four people.  Still, an 11% drop in a year is cause for scrutiny (although I really think the background on the respondents is a necessary part of a survey of this nature.)

The fact I don’t feel safe walking downtown at night (outside of the square itself) is a concern but I don’t think it’s a problem with confidence in police as much as a need for more officers on the streets.  That won’t happen without increased funding (i.e. higher taxes) and we all know how warm a reception increases in taxes go over in this community.

If a super majority of those surveyed would be open to a tax increase to take care of the shortfall then it’s probably a good idea to get it on a ballot.  I know if the measure was drawn up specifically for that issue and has a sunset clause that the tax increase cannot be renewed without another vote of the people then I would support it.  We need that shortfall eliminated so we can get that burden off the backs of our city government.  Then we watch the council and the fund managers like hawks to make sure this doesn’t happen again.