Minutes
- Bernie McCarthy (co-chair)
- Ryan Nicholls (co-chair)
- Melissa Haddow
- Pat Reiser
- Jim Arnott
- Ron Hartman
- David Hall
- Joe Easter
- Cindy Rushefsky
- Becky Jungmann
- Bob Patterson
- Mark Alexander
- Tom Tucker
- Perry Epperly
- Jill Patterson
- Gloria Roling
- Todd Myers
- Patricia Hunter
- Dale Moore
- Jack Hembree
Public safety is more than lights and sirens. It is a system of leaders, professionals and citizens acting as responsible partners to facilitate a community we can live in without harm or fear. This impacts all aspects of life and is mostly invisible until it is needed. The Public Safety committee outlined an assertive plan that allows residents and visitors to “experience a sense of safety in their homes, schools, business, and at play.” The plan was built on three core pillars of prevention, intervention, and justice. It is critical that community leaders, public safety officials and citizens work hand in hand to proactively build each public safety pillar into effective components of our community.
The challenges that our public safety disciplines currently face are overwhelming and truly understood only by the heroes who deal with them daily. Over the past several years, many local groups have been organized to address various public safety concerns, such as the Justice and Safety Roundtable, Police/Fire Pension Citizens’ Task Force and the Disaster Response Action Committee (following the 2007 ice storm). The Public Safety committee continued these efforts by organizing our plan around the prevention, intervention, and justice pillars. Two prevention working groups and one working group each for intervention and justice were organized. Each group worked intensely to identify needs and set direction from all public safety disciplines. In the end, the work of all the groups were organized into eight goals, prioritized into levels defined as important, high, and critical.
Prevention is interwoven throughout the plan, encouraging comprehensive initiatives of awareness, education, and reduction. No one will disagree on importance of prevention. However, the effectivenss of prevention measures are often difficult to quantify and therefore can be harder to justify funding. Yet their level of importance can not be overstated, especially when average costs to society for a rape case is nearly $450,000; armed robbery at $335,000; aggravated assault at $145,000; burglary at $41,000; and, most costly, murder, at more than $17.25 million for each case. Public safety prevention is directly proportionate to community costs savings. Prevention also includes initiatives outside of crime, like maintaining child safety to and from school. No cost savings can account for that lack of safety.
Intervention includes a Springfield-Greene County 24/7 public safety system with a reliable 911 communications system, interoperable radio communications, skilled personnel, and equipment/tools to safely do the job while minimizing pain and suffering. The Public Safety chapter lists personnel as a critical priority and lists facilities and equipment as high priorities.
Justice must be served to maintain a safe community. Troubling reports clearly demonstrate an understaffed and overworked justice system that slows judicial processes, increasing costs, and citizen frustrations. The average costs of crimes listed above are primarily accounted for in the justice system.
Public safety is a foundational building block for any community. It touches all components of our society. Implementation of the proposed plan will strongly support the continual enhancement of the system every citizen relies on when life deals overwhelming challenges.
By: Ryan Nicholls – Director, Springfield-Greene County Office of Emergency Management
4.20.2011
