Gas Crisis Plus Recession Equal Changes In Law Enforcement
By RNW Reporter Hayden Jennings
*Note: Please understand that this is a news story rather than a commentary. The views expressed here are those of officials, not the author.
With gas prices now nearing $4.00 a gallon, they will not only affect you when your filling up, but they are now to the point where they affect local police officers as they fill up.
It has been theorized and proven that when a county or municipality goes into a recession, a rise in crime is soon to follow. A rise in crime means that the workload on law enforcement officers also grows as they try to suppress it. Lately though, their job has been complicated as the price of gas has caused changes in the way they have policed for years.
The first local law enforcement entity to make changes was the Georgia State Patrol a few weeks ago. The GSP’s role in law enforcement changes by landscape. For example in Floyd County, their main job is traffic enforcement, in Chattooga County, they investigate most auto accidents, and finally, in rural South Georgia, they police the areas acting just as a police department would. Their job was modified throughout the state though as a command was handed down through the ranks asking troopers to limit their roving patrols and concentrate more on stationary enforcement such as running radar.
A few weeks went by after the GSP action before the prices of gas started affecting law enforcement on a local level. Within the last few weeks, the Rome Police Dept. has enacted a new procedure to cut their gas consumption until prices can go back down. Beginning with their second shift at 3:00 PM, you will likely begin seeing city police cruisers with two officers instead of the one officer unit standard citizens have seen for over 30 years in the city.
City Police officers have been assigned to “double-up” the past few weeks in hopes that taking that extra cruiser off the street will save considerably on gas consumption. Some of these two officer units ride together the whole duration of second shift, while most are teamed up in the shift overlap between second and third shifts. As third shift officers come on duty teamed up around 9:00 PM, Single man second shift units also team up. Most if not all the two-man units then separate after second shift goes off duty around 1:00 AM.
There have been some concerns voiced, specifically on our RomeWired.com forums about the coverage area and effectiveness of these two-man units. According to local officials, there is no need to worry because this new procedure takes place during the overlapping shift times (9:00PM-1:00AM).
With these measures that have been taken so far, you must wonder how far gas prices will go and how that will affect you not just financially, but also safety-wise. It also makes both you and the officers wonder, what measures will come next?
Click here to take a poll on the Rome Police Department cutbacks!
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