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SB Police Officers Speak Back
updated: Oct 26, 2011, 8:50 PM
Source: SB Police Officers Association
In Dale Francisco's Oct 22nd op-ed piece, published online by Edhat,
Mr. Francisco wrote that the SBPOA claims, "[Santa Barbara] is less safe
today, that the number of officers on the street has been reduced, and
that therefore the citizens of Santa Barbara should vote for the Union's
chosen slate of candidates."
The Santa Barbara Police Officer's Association (SBPOA) agrees 100%.
While we don't always see eye to eye with Mr. Francisco, it appears that
we both understand the POA's message very clearly: the message that
Iya Falcone, Debra Schwartz and Sharon Byrne are the three
candidates that can reverse the disturbing trend of years past, a trend
that has reduced staffing at the Police Department to startling lows, and
has left Santa Barbara underpatrolled and underserved.
Mr. Francisco's piece then goes on to attack the "Union leadership" and
to make misleading assertions about our pay and benefits and about
police department staffing. These statements are typical election time
rhetoric, intended to only tell part of the story and to confuse the facts.
Only one assertion deserves to be refuted: Mr. Francisco is quoted as
saying, "The current incumbent councilmembers were successful in
increasing the number of budgeted police officers …" That may be -
they replaced two sworn officer positions with non-sworn, less
expensive employees, and then increased our total number of sworn
officers by ONE. This was after 8-10 years of steadily reducing staffing.
So it's ten steps backwards and one step … well, you get the idea. And
this "increase" in police department staffing happened at a very
convenient time: right before the election, when incumbents could say
they "increased" the police department staffing level … and not actually
be lying. More campaign half truths.
The bottom line is this: the Santa Barbara Police Officer's Association
consists of your rank-and-file public safety employees, from officers to
support staff, dispatchers and parking enforcement units. An attack on
our "Union leadership" is an attack on the same men & women who
patrol your streets at 3 am, who want to go home safely to their families
at night, and who take pride in delivering some of the best public safety
service in California.
We are also proud to have the Santa Barbara Firefighter's Association
join us in our support of Iya Falcone, Debra Schwartz and Sharon
Byrne. This is the first time in as long as any of us can remember that
ALL your local public safety employees have joined together in support
of the same slate of candidates. That should speak volumes about
which candidates are best for public safety. To learn more about the
Santa Barbara Police Officers Association go to www.sbcops.com.
Thank you,
The Santa Barbara Police Officers Association
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