[Vision2020] Moscow, law enforcement response and the Daily News

[Debbie Gray]

The highly professional efforts of local and state law enforcement over the past 24 hours highlight once again for our community the unpredictability of human nature and the absolute necessity for law enforcement professionals to train, train and train again in order to be prepared to act quickly and effectively in a huge variety of scenarios. 


This brings me to the repulsive editorial the Daily News published only 3 weeks ago, deriding Sheriff Wayne Rausch for his 'bemusing' request for $28,000 in funds for ammunition and guns for deputy training. (see below for the editorial in its entirety). While the editorial board finds these things so bemusing, jesting that perhaps the sheriff is concerned that 4-H and FFA are dangerous rival gangs and pointing out the fact that the bad guys aren't winning, I don't find that request bemusing, unreasonable, or even financially burdensome. And overtime?! Why should law enforcement earn overtime when they're called in on their version of a weekend (usually a Tuesday/Wednesday or something, not a regular weekend like you and I might have) and in the middle of the night? They should just volunteer their time, overtime is just a ridiculous waste! Lecturing the sheriff about dealing with 'real and stringent limits' of the current economy is such a bold and
 brave move by the editorial board. 


In the video posted on today's Daily News website, the MPD, LCSO and Idaho State Police are shown securing the University Inn/Best Western last night since the shooting suspect was believed to be inside. I guess, as the editorial board might encourage if they were in charge of guns/ammo budgeting, those officers could probably just figure out how to do something like that on the fly as a situation arises, without preparation or team training. Surely nobody needs to practice setting up sniper position, shooting at close or far range, breaking windows and tossing in tear gas or pepper spray to a window just right, safely and quickly emptying a large hotel full of sleeping guests, etc.  I mean, after all, the editorial doesn't seem to think that 'the bad guys are winning' so what should we be concerned about? Nothing is going to happen in Moscow, so why waste time preparing and training for such events? Bemusing indeed! What a knee slapper.


And I'd be interested in the reaction of the editorial board if they knew the cost of just one kevlar/bullet resistant vest. I mean WOW why should taxpayers have to subsidize that kind of frivolous luxury for officers raking in the extraordinarily generous $40,000-$60,000 paycheck each year. Really, haven't you heard that there's no crime in Moscow? Aren't they just glorified parking ticket writers or jack-booted thugs bent on throttling your constitutional right to have a drunken loud party at 3 AM? Or for rudely pulling IMPORTANT YOU over because you were speeding/ran a stop sign/had a broken taillight/were texting and ran over a human, etc. because you had better things to do than pay attention to those silly laws? I mean what is wrong with these power hungry, badge heavy cops??

 

Over the 17+ years that my husband has worked in law enforcement in Latah County and the City of Moscow, I have way too often had to kiss him goodbye and whisper 'be safe' as he rushes out the door to join his co-workers who are also leaving the safety of their homes and company of their families. The only comfort I have to help me manage the inevitable anxiety of not knowing what he is rushing into and whether I, or our 2 kids, will see him again, is that I am DAMN sure that he is an extremely brave and capable man and that he and his co-workers have prepared, trained, practiced, rehearsed and trained some more to face and operate in these kinds of situations. 


'Frivoling' away $28,000 on ammunition to help him or others train to clear a building, to face an active and mobile shooter, or whatever the case may be seems like an exceptionally tiny investment to make into the safety of these officers. Really it is an insignificant amount of money (approximately 59 cents per resident of Latah County, or 5 cents a month. Or something you could dig out of your couch cushions if you put forth a few minutes of effort.)


I wonder where the editorial board was last night? I sure know where my husband, his co-workers and our friends were... and they weren't getting paid to lounge at home in their fuzzy pajamas writing snide, ignorant editorials.

Debbie Gray
Moscow, Idaho

OUR VIEW: Sheriff's  budget aim is a little off target 
Lee Rozen, for the editorial board
Posted on: Monday, August 01, 2011
Serious crime in Latah County is down this year.
Serious budget requests from Sheriff Wayne Rausch are way up.
That seems to happen every few years or so. 
Either Rausch is a master of the 
budget game of asking for way more than you need, knowing it will be 
cut; or he seems quite unaware of the strained reality of small county 
budgets in Idaho.
Back in 2005, shortly after Rausch 
was first elected, the Daily News reported Rausch and the commissioners 
agreed the sheriff's department had not had a big increase in several 
years. He asked for $590,000, but got $125,000. 
It appears that over the next six 
years, the sheriff has hung onto that increase. At the time, it was 
noted that the department had 35 vehicles, 18 of which had more than 
100,000 miles on them.
In 2008, the Daily News noted that 
the sheriff had the biggest budget of any department going into 2009, 
$2.76 million out of a budget of $14.29 million for the whole county, 
almost 20 percent. It was also noted that the sheriff had asked for a 
much bigger increase than he got.
So, for the 2011-2012 budget year, 
the sheriff wanted an increase of $500,000 to buy 20 new vehicles (again citing how many had more 100,000 miles on them), a new corporal, 
$70,000 in overtime and $28,200 for guns and ammunition. All in all, his budget request was for $3.5 million of the $15 million county budget, 
about 23 percent. 
The commissioners realistically 
whacked his request to enough money to buy four new cruisers, raise a 
deputy's pay to that of corporal, allow $35,000 in overtime and spend 
$22,000 on guns and ammunition. 
We are more than a bit bemused by 
the need of $22,000 for guns and ammunition, let alone the requested 
$28,200. With all that target practice, his deputies certainly better be crack shots. If this were a county where the bad guys were winning, 
we'd understand. Could he possibly think the 4H and FFA are rival gangs? 
As with all the other Latah County 
elected officials, the sheriff needs to manage his budget within some 
very real and stringent limits. And stop trying to make the county 
commissioners look like bad guys.
-------------- next part --------------
An HTML attachment was scrubbed...
URL: http://mailman.fsr.com/pipermail/vision2020/attachments/20110823/a601b85c/attachment.html