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Is ‘personal care’ service worth the extra cost?

Submitted by admin on Wed, 03/07/2018 - 9:00am

To the Editor:
I had a meeting with Glencoe Police Chief, Mr. Raiter, and I tried to emphasize that the difference of tax savings between county-patrolled cities studied versus our city is 34 percent.
In my case, the extra cost on my city tax in 2017 was an extra $894 per our county treasurer. This is outrageous.
Mr. Raiter stated that my findings of county patrol costs have nothing to do with Glencoe’s police costs. He contends that the city police provide personal care and service and that is what the citizens and city leaders want. Also, because I have not needed their service, I don’t realize their care and compassion that they provide; he said “you can’t put a price tag on this.” My wife and I know that the county showed up with two cars 10 minutes before the Glencoe police appeared when a car ran through a stop sign and hit our motorcycle only 11⁄2 blocks from their station.
He insinuated that I don’t realize “the bang for the buck” police provide for Glencoe and that the city council cannot make decisions regarding Glencoe police protection. So, in our visit, he reiterated that he feels my research is of no value and each town has their own philosophy.
He also showed me a 2010 printout from our county which showed that its cost to patrol the city would have been $755,094.34 with 18,304 patrol hours and 40 clerical hours, which is nearly three times per person more than it was for the county-patrolled cities in Wright, Washington and Carver counties in my study. Where did this high number of patrol hours come from? Is that really the number of hours we need to patrol our city? If so, we are approaching Minneapolis’ number of cops per 1,000 citizens with our nine officers and five squad cars. We are obviously being over policed. Our present police must reduce their cost or we need to have the county do the patrol with cost similar to other counties unless you, the citizens of Glencoe, are fine with paying an extra $820,00 per year — then pay!
Let’s make a difference — call city officials — even the two who don’t live in the city and don’t pay city taxes. We can make a change!
Gary Ballard
Glencoe