Thursday, January 22, 2009
First the good news: Crime in the Mahoning Valley’s two largest communities, Youngstown and Warren, fell last year by notable percentages compared with 2007. Youngstown experienced a 14 percent decline; Warren, 7 percent.
Now the bad news: With the national economy in a tailspin, older cities, especially those in the Rust Belt, are more likely to suffer the effects of a decline in revenue than suburban communities. Indeed, in Warren, a major budget crunch has resulted in 21 police officers being laid off. Having a force of 61 makes fighting crime a challenge.
In Youngstown, an employee buyout program and other cost-saving measures enabled government to end 2008 with a $500,000 surplus, but that is not enough of a cushion to make up for the expected revenue losses this year.
Crime-fighting strategies adopted by both cities are credited with the decline in homicides, robberies, forcible rapes and other acts of violence, but the progress made between 2007 and 2008 could well being undermined by the nation’s economic crisis. All the neighborhood block watch programs, especially those that provide police with valuable information, and all the law enforcement saturation strategies will not stop an increase in crime if the law enforcement agencies are forced to reduce manpower.
What should be done to keep Youngstown and Warren on the right track? The answer lies in Washington with the Obama administration.
During the long election campaign, Barack Obama, who was sworn in as president on Tuesday, made it clear that cities would not be ignored the way they were during the eight-year tenure of President George W. Bush.
About a year ago, we criticized the Bush administration for shortchanging cities and towns in the 2009 budget.
Budget impact
Then, lost in all the chatter about the economic stimulus package, the Democratic and Republican primary contests, the steroid scandal in professional baseball and even the New York Giants’ Super Bowl victory, had been the impact President Bush’s 2009 budget was having on cities and towns.
Among the more egregious decisions were a reduction in the Community Development Block Grant Program and the slashing of funds for housing, energy efficiency, workforce development, and law enforcement initiatives.
For instance, programs that emphasize policing were targeted for a $1 billion hit as part of a consolidation of 70 state and local law enforcement assistance programs into four grant programs. Under consolidation, the Community Oriented Policing Services (COPS) program and Bryne Justice Assistance Grants were eliminated.
Thus, when Democrat Obama, a U.S. senator from Illinois, and his then vice presidential running mate, U.S. Sen. Joseph Biden, D-Delaware, talked about crime in the inner cities and how it undermines redevelopment efforts, that was music to the ears of mayors Jay Williams of Youngstown and Michael O’Brien of Warren.
And when Biden, the architect of the COPS initiative, said during a campaign stop in downtown Youngstown that community policing — at the height of the program, 1 million police officers were put on the streets of America — would be restored, area communities welcomed the announcement.
Now, Obama and Biden are in the White House, and Youngstown and Warren are undoubtedly looking for that campaign promise to be kept.