Lehigh County Comm'rs Throw Roadblock at Cunningham's "Safe Streets" Proposal

On Tuesday, Lehigh County Executive Don Cunningham and District Attorney Jim Martin had a joint news conference, covered by NLV Logic, to release details of their new, $4 million, anti-crime package, known as the Public Safety Fund. Cunningham noted that “sixty-five cents of every Lehigh County taxpayer dollar now goes towards handling crime’s after-effects, in the form of prosecution, defense, incarceration, parole, probation, rehabilitation, and work release.”

He believes a more "pro-active approach" to crime is needed, and DA Martin agreed. "These bills will significantly enhance public safety in Lehigh County and the Lehigh Valley, and I urge the Commissioners to pass them.”

What is the Public Safety Fund?

• $1 million for a three year grant program, called Safe Streets, which will provide matching grant money to police departments to put seven to ten more community police officers on the street.

• $1.2 million for the purchase of records management software for local police departments to create a first-ever shared records network among Lehigh County’s 17 police departments.

• $500,000 toward the operation of a regional crime data center, intended to include Lehigh and Northampton Counties, which will collect and analyze crime data from all Lehigh Valley police departments.

• $225,000 toward the county’s current commitment of $1 million toward improving regional Emergency Training Sites for emergency fire and ambulance personnel.

• An additional booking officer for the newly-created Central Booking Office, which now processes all police bookings in Lehigh County, allowing officers to get back to police duties, and a resolution of support for a Lehigh Valley Regional Crime Data Center.

As good as this plan sounds, Lehigh County Commissioners last night surprisingly threw a roadblock in front of the only portion of the fund that would actually add more community police officers in Lehigh County. In a vote that went strictly along party lines, Republicans amended the Fund to authorize the Safe Streets program in the amount of just $1.

You can't even get a blogger for that pittance.

Republicans voting against an anti-crime measure? You got it. Many of them questioned whether funding a community police officer is outside the scope of core county functions. Considering that 65% of Lehigh County's tax revenue pays for the aftermath of crime, I think a three-year community policing program might actually pay for itself in terms of reduced crime.

Republicans voted to amend this ordinance, claiming they needed more information to consider the matter. Fifteen police chiefs were cooling their heels right in front of them, sitting quietly through both a committee hearing as well as a regular meeting of the commissioners. But commissioners amended the proposal without listening to what the men in blue had to offer. Here's what various commissioners had to say before their vote.

Chairman Percy Dougherty: "Crime is the number one problem in the Lehigh Valley. A number of people are afraid to come downtown." But he also claimed the community policing aspect of Cunningham's idea "is not a function of county government. I think we are rushing into this. ... Putting more police on the street is not the answer. There are so many other things we can do other than putting police officers on the street."

Dean Browning: During the Committee hearing that preceded the regular meeting, Browning released an analysis of budget trends as it relates to the Public Safety Fund. I'll have more to say about his interesting findings next week. He prefers waiting to fund this project until the next budget comes in because it would provide some context. "Community policing is not a county core function. But if there is an overwhelming need, perhaps we should consider it." Browning is the commissioner who moved to amend the community policing program by funding it with $1 instead of $1 million. "If crime is the problem, seven or ten officers will not solve it. If we are going to have a 'surge,' maybe we need seventy officers."

Bill Leiner: "The evidence is out there. The more cops, the less crime." Leiner noted that when he was Coplay's mayor, he was "stunned" by the number of elderly people who were actually afraid to go out on their porch. "If you don't have a safe community, you don't have a community."

Glenn Eckart: He talked about a pig farmer in Lower Milford who used to get 73 cents for pork but now is getting just 37 cents. The farmer complained to Eckhart, "I'm going to be subsidizing Allentown." Eckhart went on to note that, despite its EMS tax, Allentown still has twenty officers less than it had in 2005.

Dan McCarthy: "When you're attacked in a war, you don't say, 'Now's not the time to respond.' When you're faced with an unusual situation, you have to step outside the box. ... It's about a dollar per resident to try and combat crime." McCarthy also addressed Eckhart's argument that suburbs will be funding the cities. "Criminals do not respect municipal boundaries. We have to find a reason for them to get out of the Lehigh Valley."

David Jones: In his first speech as a county commissioner, Jones had his own response to the lament that suburbs are subsidizing the cities. "We're all in the same boat. If there's a hole in the boat and you say the hole's on my side of the boat and you're not going to fix it, then everybody's going to sink."Jones notes nothing in Lehigh's Home Rule Charter prohibits this grant, and finally argued, "We're fighting to save our future as a county."

Gloria Hamm: Her 89 year old mother lives in Allentown's first ward, and is afraid to take her trash out at night. "How can it be wrong to have ten additional policemen?"

Andy Roman: Concerned that Lehigh's deputy sheriffs are now being outgunned with inferior revolvers, Roman believes "we should look at areas we are already responsible for, before branching out and trying different things."

Sterling Raber: A man of few words, this retired pig farmer just listened.

Before the vote, only Bethlehem police commissioner Randy Miller was heard, and he flatly told the commissioners that a community police program should be "pro-active. If you get reactive, you're in a lot of trouble."

Right now, it's inactive.

Where do we go from here?

"This is not what we expected," is how Frank Kane, a Cunningham aide, quietly reacted to this setback. Cunningham was also perplexed, but still congenial. "You're willing to venture into new territory for IT, but not people." Although Republicans claim they support the idea in theory, they just gutted it.

In the next two weeks, Cunningham needs to persuade one Republican to have a change of heart. Since Dougherty actually claimed police officers fail to solve our crime problem, I'd skip him. Browning claimed, at least rhetorically, that Lehigh might need seventy officers. If it does, then it certainly needs seven. Eckhart also seemed to waver, and had a weak argument, and had earlier agreed to support the program.

I have a feeling this battle is far from over.

Update: The Morning Call's Darryl Isherwood has a well-written, and slighly more objective, account of last night's meeting, noting that the police officers there were unhappy with the commissioners' vote.