WHAT THE HELL IS GOING ON AT JPD???
WHAT? So JPD has received over $21 MILLION in grant money and spent less than ONE FRIGGIN PERCENT OF IT??? What is going on over there? Beats are uncovered. Police OT is almost nonexistent. Long 12 hour shifts are now the norm for cops. Yet, the Clarion-Ledger this morning reports:
"More than $21 million in grants is currently allotted to JPD. The money is earmarked for equipment, such as computers, crime lab microscopes, digital cameras and hiring more officers.
But so far, city finance officials have been able to determine that less than 1 percent, or $136,000, of all the grants has been used.
Two of the grants already have expired, and all but one of the rest will expire by the end of this year.
Paperwork on the largest grant, a $14.8 million COPS Universal Hire Grant awarded to the city in 1995, shows no attempt by the city to spend it. The money is designed to recruit and hire police officers...." http://www.clarionledger.com/apps/pbcs.dll/article?AID=/20080519/NEWS/805190329/1001/news
How badly is JPD understaffed? Where is Safecity on this? One would think that this would be something for them to address when they are not working on plans for a downtown Green Zone. Where is DJP? Our Congressmen? Why is no one giving Melton and his administration grief for this incompetence?
One further thought. For years the Hinds County Sheriff's office has been plagued by budget problems. I, like many others, blamed them on Doug Anderson and his little cabal of Supes on the Board. It was an easy thing to do and Peggy Hobson is showing just how badly Doug Anderson ran things. However, Mac has been in this job since November and the budget problems seem to get worse. Is this a case of Mac being a helluva cop but weak on fiscal matters? Not taking a cheap shot at Mac, just thinking out loud. Is there anyone in JPD that does understand how budgets are supposed to work?
Thanks Melton, for you and your cronies screwing Jackson once again. This incompetence is a great example of why the legislature will not allow Jackson to raise taxes. Why should it do so? I can hear some legislator now saying "see, they can't even spend the money they already have for JPD. Why should we give them any more?" Couple this with the mismanagement of the JPS bond issue, and its pretty clear that the Melton administration is the worst one that Jackson has ever seen. Some heads need to roll for this one. Starting with the carpetbagger from Tyler, Texas.
6 comments:
SafeCity doesn't want JPD to succeed. A dysfunctional JPD and a dysfunctional Jackson only reinforces the arguments that their top dollar lobbyists made/make to legislators behind closed doors that the state has a vested interest in the safety and security of downtown and therefore needs to intervene to protect those interests.
McCreery, whose interests SafeCity solely exists to promote, has his nose buried up Phil Bryant's bung. Phil Bryant wants to be Governor and is scared to death that Chip Pickering is going to challenge him in the GOP primary come 2011. Therefore Bryant is going to do everything he can to promote the SafeCity (McCreery) agenda in the Senate in exchange for support from the SafeCity crowd (which includes Y'allPolitics) when 2011 rolls around.
SafeCity wants their black criminal exclusionary zone, which their lobbyists were telling legislators was necessary in order to qualify for various federal grants for benign small things like sidewalks and the like, so that these guys can generate some consulting gigs to feather their nests at the expense of all those in Jackson who live outside of their McCreery/Lange enrichment zone.
The fact that McCreery is quoted in the C-L spewing apologia for Melton tells you all you need to know. The whole gang is invested in Jackson's governance failure because within that chaos they see no one stopping them.
Didn't see Safecity on the talon client list.
Too bad you're lame.
Here's what SafeCity spent on lobbyists in 2007
And to think that McCreery has people duped into thinking that their contributions are going to tracking databases and helicopters.
Hey, that's more proof than Ladd's castration claim.
I fully agree with everything you have to say about this. It is ridiculous that JPD has not sent that money and is going to more than likely lose it all. What is even sadder though is if you compare the salaries of Hinds County Sheriff's Deputies to those of JPD employees, the JPD employees make double to triple what a HCSO employee makes. Or is it sadder that many people in JPD's jurisdiction would rather call HCSO so they actually get a response and can try and get some help?
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