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Shortage of officers in Palo Alto
Original post made
by Adel2012, South of Midtown,
on May 3, 2012
In the road show column of SJ Mercury, today I read that there are only three or fewer officers in Palo Alto enforcing the traffic laws. At least two of these officers mostly hang around the schools (which is ok). Apparently part of the reason for the low staffing level is that the city and public employee unions did not come to an agreement on salary and benefit concessions (again from SJM news). So, our city cannot afford more officers at the current level salary and benefits. Here are a couple of solutions that comes to my mind:
1) Privatize more city services (like Half Moon Bay, I think). With the current level of State unemployment, I am sure it would not be very hard to find new recruits.
2) Put something in the ballot to reform the government worker contracts (like San Jose).
3) Use cameras and sensors to control speed, red lighter violators and rolling stoppers.
So, unless people start voicing their concern, we are not going to see any meaningful reform in the city government. BTW, I am not an activist or a politician. I am just a law abiding tax payer, who really scared to cross the streets these days when I know there is no one watching and enforcing traffic safety rules.