Just a heads up to other Police K9 Units .

With all the badguys our K9 unit has helped to put away , Citizens and fellow Police Officers we've helped to keep safe and all the positive press that "K9 Cops" has brought us , the city of St Paul is experiancing a huge budget crisis and there has been a proposal to cut 5 K9s from our unit . This is an attempt to avoid laying off Police Officers . Almost every unit in our department may experiance cuts . All of these units are now approaching the administration in an attempt to show why it would be benificial to leave their units untouched .

Obviously the administration has been swamped and isn't very open to any of us . They've got a multimillion dollar loss from the budget and are scrambling to make up for this loss through hiring freezes , not filling retired Officers positions , retirement incentives , equipment cutbacks , etc. .

In times like these K9 Units can be very benificial since they are force multipliers (being able to search areas using less Officers and doing it faster and safer then Officers ) especially in a time were there are less Officers working the streets . Obviously having less Officers the added safety K9's provide during these times would be even more valueable . The problem we are faced with is the crisis has already hit our city and department hard and it is very difficult getting our voice heard .

Since experiancing these problems I strongly advise Police K9 Units to prepare for such problems by showing how beneficial you are to your city , departments and supporters before it's too late and you become just another voice lost in a crowd .

From what I've been hearing our city is expecting even bigger budget problems in the next few years .

Take Care and Stay Safe ,
Jim Nash

Jim,
Sorry to hear about the cuts. It is reminiscent of the 80's when many department in the mid west cut back (at that time I recall numerous officers who were laid off coming out west to continue their career). We have not been hit hard yet. Of course the "economy" looms big in our requests for pay raises right now but we also have an academy beginning next month with 35 new hires. We are fortunate in that property tax assessment is the bulk of couty funding. It is less volatile than gross receipt taxes.

But, I expect the county to tighten its belt in the coming fiscal year as well.

Thanks Kevin . I doesn't seem like anyone saw such a huge problem heading our way . At least I hadn't heard any talk . We knew we would be looking at pinching pennies but nothing like this .

Our problem started when the state descided to drastically cut the funding they originally promised the city (it's not just our city though , everyone is experiancing huge budget cuts from the state). Unfortunately our city had basically started purchasing and spending based on the money they were originally promised .
Common practice for most agencies in this state . We then found ourselves in a huge hole .

Our department appreciates our K9 Unit they have just found themselves in a desperate situation . I'm hoping they can find another way to deal with it other then cutting from the K9 Unit . I feel now more than any other time that our K9 Unit can play a huge role in keeping everyone safe in these tough times . With a bad economy comes more crime and less cops . K9s play a huge role in closing that gap and keeping everyone safe .

Our department had planned on hiring about 15 new Officers . One a Police Officer in Chicago I believe quit his job and at the last moment found out all hirings had been canceled .

Jim,

That sucks. We only have four teams but I can see the city cutting one. Two dogs are slated to be replaced this year...if they're going to do it then that will be the time. We'll see. Things are getting tough here as well.

Howard

if some bean counters would pull their collective heads out of their a$$ they could see how cost effective having MORE dogs not less. Richmond could of saved hundreds of thousands of dollars if they could of dogged a few people instead of shooting them, or accidentally killing them during a pile on or pepper spraying.
Recently at a inner city High School football game where a riot/gang fight was going to break out, the PD got a couple of dogs out, the "kids" decided to go to their cars and everybody slept at home that night. They just see the price tag of the dog and training cost and not the money saved by NOT having to deal with civil suits and the like

Here is an angle of attack you could use

A simple documented message to all those in favor of cutting the K9 units
indicating the advantages of a k9 unit in specific situations
and also indicating that you will personaly name the person in case something goes wrong due to the lack of a k9 unit

Politics has a short term horizon
but politicians like to be in a job in the long term

Greetings

Johan

So sorry for what you guys are facing. K9 units are invaluable... Why can't politicians see how they save so many lives, and so much money in the long run... I hope it works out for you.

Here is a pic to lighten the mood a little...

K9 budget cuts....

http://i141.photobucket.com/albums/r42/shodyL/k9unit.jpg

So far, they've not "retired" any dogs. However they have canceled all my classes for '09. I had an explosives class scheduled for February and a patrol class scheduled for September. I am training a bloodhound and a cadaver dog. The dog that were in those positions are no longer worried. I'm more concerned about explosives detectors than I am cadaver dogs, but we do have 10 working. There are no pay raises this year. We just graduated an academy class of 35 Troopers, but future classes have been put on hold. Times are tough. There are rumors of up to 2,000 state employees being layed off.

DFrost

Maybe the prez's spendulous package will save us.