U.S. Cities Start Cutting Police Amid Budget Crunch
Wed February 12, 2003 04:23 PM ET
By Christina Ling
WASHINGTON (Reuters) - Budget problems have forced one in four U.S. cities to cut their police forces or plan for cuts despite increased terrorism risks in recent months, the National League of Cities said on Wednesday.
Calling on the federal government to send long-promised funds to help equip and train emergency personnel who would be first on the scene of any new disaster, New Haven Mayor John DeStefano said efforts to secure the country against new terrorist threats were insufficient.
"The challenges we face as a nation and that will be resolved and played out in our cities and towns are not going to be solved by duct tape," DeStefano, who is also NLC president, told a news briefing, referring to government recommendations to have the popular all-purpose remedy handy in the event of an attack.
"I use it when something breaks and I don't know what to do. The challenges we have in our cities and towns are going to be resolved when our firefighters show up properly trained and properly equipped for whatever they may face."
DeStefano's comments echoed those of Senate Minority Leader Tom Daschle, who also called on President Bush's administration to provide real money to help state and local governments beef up security.
The League, which represents some 18,000 cities, is just the latest state and local government organization to plead with Congress to approve some $3.5 billion they say they were promised to help with mounting new "homeland security" costs.
Daschle, a South Dakota Democrat, said his party would make a renewed effort to increase such funding.
The added expenses come as the national economy struggles, with a delayed economic recovery sapping state and local budgets and forcing more families to use costly public safety net services.
The NLC's survey of 322 cities and towns, conducted during the first week of February, found that 16 percent of cities had already cut police positions and eight percent expected to do so in the near future.
Nine percent of cities had cut firefighters and another 7 percent expected to do so soon.
Of the city leaders surveyed, 43 percent said investing in local infrastructure and programs to strengthen the economy should be the nation's single top priority, compared to 15 percent who chose military intervention to disarm Iraq of alleged biological and chemical weapons.
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