New Focus and Political Will to Change Status Quo will Save Lives and Reduce Costs
Fort Wayne, IN., September 25, 2007 – Republican mayoral candidate Matt Kelty today outlined three common-sense initiatives to improve Fort Wayne’s public safety and improve the quality of life for Fort Wayne residents. After extensive review and hands-on operational exposure with the police and fire departments, as well as the ambulance service, Kelty has identified three (3) initiatives his administration will implement to improve public safety services. These initiatives will streamline services and response times while reducing cost.
In the first initiative of the Kelty plan for improving public safety, Crime Prevention and Law Enforcement, he believes that simply increasing the number of police patrolling the streets cannot, by itself, reduce crime. Citing a report prepared for the National Institutes of Justice, which states clearly that criminal frequency is also affected by the integrity of the family and by the strength of the labor market, Kelty links his economic plan for the City to improved public safety. Additionally, the report identifies that the style and attitude of law enforcement toward the citizen also affects the criminal frequency.
“In the primary campaign I spoke clearly about the need to strengthen the integrity of families in Fort Wayne, saying, ‘Families build communities. Government serves them.’ I’ve already identified the need to reduce the interference of excessive government regulation and taxes. Doing so strengthens the family and empowers small businesses, creating new and better employment opportunities. These tenets directly support the assertion that the integrity of the family and the strength of the labor market contribute significantly to improve public safety.”
As part of this first initiative proposed to improve public safety, Kelty commits to aggressively re-institute the very successful Community Oriented Policing initiatives first established by former Mayor Paul Helmke, which have since atrophied under the current administration.
“Based on the 1990s neighborhood response to Community Oriented Policing System in Fort Wayne and its empirical success, I will draw on the expertise of former Police Chief Neil Moore, and commit to re-energizing and re-establishing Community Oriented Policing,” said Kelty. “We will re-integrate officers into the communities and neighborhoods, direct city agencies and departments to give priority response to community police officers’ requests, and look at programs to encourage officers to live in the neighborhoods they serve. In addition I will make certain we properly organize and staff our police force, sustain and strengthen programs like take-home police cars, and empower our citizens and officers to make a difference in the neighborhoods where they live and serve.”
The second initiative of the Kelty plan for improving public safety deals with emergency life saving services, specifically a comprehensive re-evaluation of the emergency medical response system and services.
“We have incredible individuals that have to work twice as hard to overcome the problems and faults of an outdated system. We need to look to the emergency medical service providers who operate today with 2008 techniques and technology, but are relegated by a system that was conceived in the early 1980′s. We must draw on the operational experience and expertise of these individuals to help us re-evaluate the operation, so that we can deliver emergency medical services in a way that is more efficient and saves more lives. Meeting a national average response time of 8.5 minutes is not acceptable when someone you love will be dead in 6 minutes. I think we can do better. “
Specifically, Kelty has identified four (4) initial parameters he’d like to use in re-evaluating emergency medical services in Fort Wayne:
1. Increase the number of ambulances in service at any one time.
2. Leverage the geographic locations of the existing fire stations out of which to base ambulances to provide better service.
3. Review governing ordinances and agreements and amend as necessary to ensure that benefits in efficiencies and services accrue to the public.
4. Improve emergency medical dispatches to send help when called, in order to reduce dispatching delays that may prove lethal.
This initiative will prove the greatest benefit to currently underserved areas of Fort Wayne with the greatest frequency of dispatches. The initiative will also provide substantial benefit to newly annexed areas.
The third initiative of the Kelty plan for improving public safety addresses Emergency Communications for both the City and the County. This issue most clearly demonstrates the need for new leadership and a willingness to place the interests of the people above ego and above “turf battles.”
“Most people recognize the absurdity of having two separate sets of people providing an essential public service a few yards from each other, separated by a glass wall. As the architect who designed that wall at the request of the City, I certainly know how to take it down. Public officials have claimed for years that they will push or have been pushing for consolidated 911 services, but nobody has had the political will actually to do it. I will not just ‘press for consolidation,’” said Kelty, “I will do it.”
The challenges of merging the city and the county emergency dispatch operations have been characterized a variety of ways, but differences generally center on the aspect of command & control.
“I am sure, from the perspective of the Sheriff’s Office,” said Kelty, “one major difficulty has been the unwillingness of the City to give up control over the critical function of dispatch of Fort Wayne Police Officers. I will not talk about this problem. I will solve it. My solution is to say to Sheriff Ken Fries, ‘If you will take the lead in combining this service for the benefit of the public, the city will follow.’ I have complete confidence in Sheriff Fries and know him to be a fine law enforcement officer and public servant. His concern for the safety of the citizens of Allen County is not limited by municipal boundaries.”
Kelty went on to say, “I will direct my Chief of Police to meet with Sheriff Fries and to implement a combined emergency dispatch center in the manner that Sheriff Fries deems most appropriate. I am confident that if I invest this trust in Sheriff Fries, he will reward that investment by providing equal consideration to the needs of city and county officers and citizens.
Furthermore, I will ask Sheriff Fries to take the lead not just in combining city and county emergency dispatch, but also in ‘folding in’ the work of the Emergency Medical Dispatch, currently housed in the TRAA facility on Hayden Street. We live in an age where available technology should push better service. Currently, someone needing emergency medical help calls their 911 dispatcher, who then calls another dispatcher, who then dispatches a crew. We can-and we must-do better.”
Kelty’s initiatives to vigorously re-energize and re-establish Community Oriented Policing, Re-evaluate Emergency Medical Response, and consolidate and streamline City and County Emergency Communications are powerful examples of how servant leadership exerts political will to accomplish what is in the public’s best interest.
“If I believe in something,” said Kelty, “I will expend the time, the resources, and the political capital to make it happen. We’ve talked about these things for years and years. It’s time we get it done.”
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I agree with Matt 175% on the Combo of the dispatch centers and to get the ambulance distach center included. He is right on.
See, if the Sheriff messes up the dispatch center we can vote him out. He can not hide behind the Mayor. We have him in our sights. Gosh, accountability right to the voter! How strange?
I still thinking about the other two.
How would you improve the take home cars program?
I also do not like the idea of having the county take over the police dispatch of the city. The county over its history has been backward and ineffective at all levels. It is the city that needs to take the leave, not the county.
I’ll have to agree with Scott. Although I am a strong Kelty supporter. the County has proven to be a rudderless ship. It’s best to let the more experienced call takers guide the boat. However, I would take away the cars. They are a minimal crime deterrent and more of a feelgood benefit.
Lifer, I have to disagree with you regarding the cars. The city gets far more out of those cars than most people realize…numerous officers working part-time jobs around the city use those cars to transport their own arrestees, rather than calling for an on-duty unit to make the transport. Every time an on-duty unit is called for a transport, expect it to take him/her out of service for about an hour, and that adds up in a hurry. Additionally, back in the days of fleet cars, officers routinely spent up to an hour per day loading and unloading equipment…if you look at the number of squads on the street during any given day, the lost man-hours can easily run in excess of 75 per day, at over $50/hr by the time you calculate salaries, benefits, insurance, worker’s comp and all the other costs associated with putting cops on the streets. Off-duty units handle thousands of incidents every year that would ordinarily fall to the already strained manpower levels of the police department. In addition, units routinely call on early to take runs so the officers ending their shifts can go home on time, saving YOU a ton of overtime. The guys calling on early don’t get overtime for doing so, but they’re saving the taxpayers money by doing so. Take home cars serve as a “manpower multiplier,” in many cases doubling the number of trained cops on the street to respond to emergencies, so the taxpayer is actually getting more out of this than the individual officers. At least your neighbors don’t come to your house all hours of the day and night looking for legal advice about their divorces/child custody disputes, directions, VIN checks or assistance in getting their wayward kids under control, just because they saw the car out front. Sure, most of the new guys think the take-home car is kinda cool, but a lot of the veterans are just tired of the hassles that go along with it. The biggest benefit to the officer is knowing that his personally owned equipment is where he expects it to be, in working order, and that the weapons will actually go bang if he ever needs them. From a cop’s point of view, the car thing is a double-edged sword and not that much of a monetary benefit at all once you look at all the factors involved.