Aiyer on Public Safety

JayForHouston.com :: Houston's Public Safety Crisis

Now THIS is what I'm talking about ... I've staked my claim as a supporter of Jay Aiyer for City Council from the get-go. The biggest part of this was due to the depth that Jay is willing to get into to address local issues, and this entry demonstrates the case rather vividly:

Why have we not trained more new officers? Cost -- it currently costs the city of Houston $2.8 million for a cadet class of 70. That number doubles when the overall cost of operations of the Police Academy is factored in. Fiscal reality makes any dramatic increase in training difficult under our current system.

There is an answer to this problem.

Currently, the Houston Community College System (HCCS) provides most of the continuing education training for HPD. It also trains new officers for most area law enforcement agencies at a far smaller cost per-officer than HPD.

As an educational entity, HCCS receives state and federal allocations that lower its training costs. HCCS?s core mission is education?training is what it does best. The City of Houston is not in the education business.

HCCS has proposed and is moving ahead with a new Public Safety Academy for the region, partnering with other area law enforcement agencies. It is the smartest option to provide state of the art law enforcement training at the lowest cost, and the City of Houston should join the partnership.

HCCS will train top-quality new officers at its Academy, while saving Houstonians millions in tax dollars. Moreover, it will provide HPD badly needed access to the students that comprise the recruitment base for future police officers.

We need a new approach on public safety, and a partnership to train new officers is a real solution for a very real problem. Solving the problem will require a willingness at City Hall to change direction. Let?s hope City officials are willing?the public?s safety depends on it.

Far from just being resolved to be supportive of more cops on the street, far from just running on a platform of seeking out ways to pay for the same, Jay just spells out a case for doing so at an effective cost, and that partners with the most effective resources to get the mission accomplished.

This specific issue is but one tangent of an earlier Op-Ed of Jay's that was published in the Chronicle. The Public Safety Academy concept ought to be stolen by every candidate hitting the hustings, but let's not forget which candidate is pushing it the hardest.