Once again the Lincoln Journal Star has chosen to take a swipe at the Lincoln Independent Business Association (LIBA) for seeking more police officers for our city.
Once again, LIBA disagrees with the LJS.
The city of Lincoln needs more police. That became very evident when emails were released last week in which the Lincoln Police Chief stated “I think for the most part, most of you already know that the amount of police officers that Lincoln has on its force is relatively small for the size of City that we are responsible for policing. At times we are just flat out of police officers now to even be able to respond to citizens who are calling for assistance.”
The email above was dated February 22, 2015. This email is quite alarming. Knowing that sometimes we are out of officers to respond to a call for help is not an acceptable way to run a city.
While everyone in the community is pleased we have solved the recent rash of armed robberies, we can’t just go back to normal. We would like to remind you that just five months ago, a reporter quoted Tom Casady, Lincoln’s Director of Public Safety as saying “there’s been a rise in the number of gang members and the intensity of gang crimes.”
Casady also said that gangs are “aggressive, shooting at each other, hacking each other with machetes, committing armed robberies.” Casady said, “there’s a tipping point at which bystanders start becoming collateral damage.” LIBA would agree. Now is the time to get more officers on the streets so we can avoid having an innocent bystander injured due to this violence.
But there are other reasons too. For example, victims of Lincoln crimes would like to have the criminal caught by police, and would like to get their stolen items returned to them. Last week Casady posted on his blog that only 9% of the residential burglaries are cleared. For business owners, like members of LIBA, the clearance rate of commercial burglaries is 10.4%. The 2013 national average for burglary clearance is closer to 13%. Surely LIBA is not alone in wanting to see a higher clearance rate for local crimes.
Lincoln Police officers are doing a terrific job with the resources they have, just imagine if they had more of those resources.
LIBA studies and promotes these types of issues that are important to businesses and our community. If you have an interest in joining LIBA, please call me at 466-3419. LIBA membership is not restricted to just businesses. We also have “individual” memberships for those who want to help influence our local government decisions.
by Coby Mach, President & CEO
Lincoln Independent Business Association
402-466-3419