Having quickly scanned the governor’s new proposals and being limited in my understanding of their actual ramifications, I have an idea for him that follows the same vein of the government being a model of efficiency: Why do we have so many layers of law enforcement?

We shouldn’t reduce field officers; they are needed more than ever. But we should consolidate the state and county police forces. Think of the savings in administration, vehicle maintainence and fights over jurisdiction. There would be just cost at the state level, and the extra taxes that would be save could be funneled through the county.

Perhaps they could fix the mess at the jails, also, but that would be another issue.

We don’t need all the surplus of office people just building to big pensions that we already can’t afford. Individual municipalities could keep their police if they want to pay for them, but otherwise the overhead of excess administration would be reduced by eliminating separate agencies.

Federal law enforcement is a whole other crazy quilt of agencies overlapping and bloating costs.

Jay McDougal

Hartland


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