As someone close to our needs of the Morrison Police Department, I am encouraging voters to approve the proposed increase in the Police Protection Levy.
If you are following the recent news articles, you know that the Police Department has been short an officer for the past several years. This shortage causes some overtime, but more importantly, this manpower shortage can cause delays in case investigations and extended follow-up time in requests for service. There is a lot more to Police work than writing tickets for speeding or parking violations.
Over all, we have a very safe community, but unfortunately there are more and more demands on Officers’ time as burglaries, petty thefts, drug problems, and domestic violence issues continue to rise. The legal system also is placing more and more requirements on Officers to document all traffic stops, calls for assistance, etc.
The Police Protection Levy increase was calculated to accommodate one additional officer and is not an open-ended tax. It is easy for one to say that we don’t need another officer, when one is not aware of the requirements that are placed on the Department. Much of the daily activity for the Department goes unnoticed by us because of legal constraints and privacy issues.
Please vote Yes on the Police Protection Levy on [Tuesday,] April 2nd, to assure that our Police force is adequately staffed.
Thanks for reading this. I wouldn’t ask for your vote if it wasn’t important.
Everett Pannier