Hey, Yupette,
The County Board held a work session with Arlington Police Chief Murray Farr and Arlington Office of Emergency Management Director Jack Brown yesterday afternoon. To the surprise of no one who works at 2100 Clarendon Blvd., both Chief Farr and Director Brown told the County Board that the Police Department and Office of Emergency Management are severely stressed, largely as a consequence of so-called New Urbanism.
Although Arlington's population has grown by about 20,000 over the past 17 years, the Police Department has fewer officers than in 1998. Demands by Homeland Security have signficantly reduced the number of the Department's patrol officers.
Most problematic is the amount of mandatory police overtime generated because of pub crawls and similar Millennial events in Clarendon, Ballston, and Rosslyn. OEM Director Brown reported his staff are similarly stressed because of the increase in the number of calls for service. Cell phones are currently the source of 75% of the calls to 911.
Obviously, the County Board is going to have to increase Police Department funding in the FY 17 Budget. The Arlington Fire Department will hold a working session with the County Board in the near future and it's expected that the Acting Fire Chief will report that Fire and EMS resources are even more stressed than the Police and OEM.
Thanks for your blog.
2100
43 comments:
Total ACPD overtime for the past 3 years averaged 69,000 hours per year. Why weren't we told about the stress on ACPD before the election?
According to Chief Farr the new Ballston Mall will generate 2,000 additional calls for assistance per year once it's completed and opens. Why are the developers allowed to externalize such costs onto local government?
New Urbanism is corporate welfare on top of social and economic gentrification, that's why.
If these County Board work sessions can't be broadcast by AVN they should be broadcast by the County's low power FM station, WERA.
ACPD and AFD can't keep up with a 20,000 person increase in Arlington's population over the past 17 years. How are they going to keep up with a 66,000 population increase over the next 25 years?
ACFD is completely stressed-out. Firefighters and EMS personnel are "retiring" on disability in their late 30's from all the wear and tear on their bodies.
Arlington residents NEED 4 fully-staffed new EMS Units (including 2 new ALS units) right now but are GETTING new AEA-certified Taj Mahal schools and FIFA-certified synthetic surface soccer fields.
"Why are the developers allowed to externalize such costs onto local government?"
Because the alternative is de facto or de jure privatization of the police, and that flavor of overt fascism is frowned upon.
Arlington firefighters are leaving because of insane 56 hour per week work schedule.
No sympathy...they and we were given a choice last election - fund the basics or fund more pet vanity projects. They could and should have spoken up then.
Yearly turnover is 18% in ACPD and 12% in OEM.
No, taxpayers and residents pay for externalized costs - e.g., the recreational open space demands by residents of urbanized neighborhoods where 'open space' consists of plazas surrounded by restaurants and retail.
FYI Courthouse Plaza, owned by Vornado, is patrolled by a private security force.
Externalized costs? Anyone else noticed that when the CB required bar owners to pay for the costs of pub crawls the number of pub crawls greatly diminished?
When 30 Arlington Police have to stand stand around watching Octoberfest revelers isn't that privatizing the police?
People you need a reality check. While these demands on police are expensive and annoying the people in this small portion of Arlington pay the vast majority of its taxes. Take away all of those "urban" areas of Arlington and guess what, tax income to the county would drop precipitously in relation to the drop in population.
NO Way !!! Costs from Smart Growth infill redevelopment are being externalized - by design - onto the rest of Arlington. Whether it's the Police, Fire, EMS, schools, parks, etc., we pay so the New Urbanists can play their gentrification and corporate welfare games.
I can't have community policing in my neighborhood because the cops are too busy supervising 25 year old adult delinquents in the B-R corridor. Does anyone seriously believe the sales tax + meals tax from these bar crawl events comes close to paying for the overtime for 30 police, firefighters, and EMS?
Anyone watch Saturday's CB Meeting? CarPool redevelopment on Fairfax Drive - 330 new residential units - no discussion at all by the CB about future costs in public infrastructure and public services.
Fast-tracked by their Smart Growth Guru, Victor Hoskins, who will never suffer any consequences because he lives in Historic Georgetown.
Everyone -- Do a comprehensive Web search on Victor L. Hoskins, so you can see what this Smart Growth Turkey has inflicted on Virginia, DC, and Maryland.
If Guru Hoskins is so great, why is Baltimore such a mess?
Yes, let's all live in "vibrant" mixed-use canyons that Victor Hoskins persuaded the DC City Council to construct in SE DC.
Smart Growth Sucks - Here' s Why - Victor Hoskins.
Victor Hoskins is like our neighborhood cat that goes around door to door begging for handouts.
Something has to be said about the dreadful food that's served in the ground-floor restaurants of the "vibrant" mixed use redeveloped buildings...almost all of it bar food, loaded with fat, salt, sugar.
Air pollution caused by more traffic? What air pollution?
Anyone else noticed that last month between 4% and 5% of Arlington's voters wrote someone's name on their ballots in unopposed races?
New Urbanism is a social disease. Everyone in a position of authority is infected.
Department heads who don't live in Arlington were promoted to Deputy County Managers who don't live in Arlington. Arlington Way 2.0 aka new Urbanism 2.0 - they play, we pay.
Anyone visited ArlNow recently? The people who are allowed to post comments are almost all New Urbanism facilitators.
We are overwhelmed by New Urbanist propaganda. To the extent there is zero discussion of even the possibility of any alternatives or alternatives.
Yes, New Urbanists are Vultures and our residential neighborhoods are roadkill.
Anyone else read the entire Consent Agenda from Saturday's County Board meeting?
Katie Cristol is in the last stage of brainwashing by Mary Hynes.
Appears that people who have been censored out of ArlNow for not being sufficiently pro Smart Growth are showing up on this blog.
Arlington Police Department has only itself to blame when it allows police officers to respond to hundreds of false and malicious complaints every year about minority group members allegedly smoking marijuana in "white" neighborhoods.
Long-time poverty pimp Christian Dorsey doesn't need to be instructed about where to find the funding for middle class, aka the people who provide upscale services to the ruling class, 'affordable housing'.
Latest middle class providers of upscale services to the ruling class are Pilates instructors.
Buddy of mine is friends with a ACPD officer who picked us up in front of a bar and drove us to my friends home, as any good buddy would. Farr has some major issues with accountability and oversight of his personnel. There is little to no community policing going on in Arlington. His detectives and officers acting like frat-boys and hanging out at the clubs has to stop. For every club that's open past midnight should be taxed and fined when incidents involving alcohol and customers occur on their property. Farr is faking the funk. He's got an impressive career on paper but he learned nothing about policing / being a street cop on HMX and likely rode a desk in NCIS. I'm unimpressed. If he doesn't make some quick fixes he should step down or be asked to leave. The city is a mess and it's just going to get worse. Morale on ACPD is at an all time low and good officers keep leaving for better paying jobs in the federal sector. Considering all the 1/2 million dollar one bedroom condos in Arlington they sure have a lot of tax money to do a lot of good. The major and chief better get their heads out of their a$$. Car thefts, violent crime and sexual assaults are all on the rise from what I've see in the blotter.
What should give everyone great concern -- report in the Post of Baltimore gang members on dirt bikes zooming through several jurisdictions including Arlington and scaring motorists and pedestrians and no police department being able to catch sight of them much less apprehend them.
Even more pathetic - parents and school buses running the Stop signs at the corner of S. Abingdon and S. 29th Street. Two ACPD officers live at the intersection. Residents want a crossing guard. Can't happened because Christian Dorsey and his fellow Abingdon School PTA parents want to be able to speed to the school in their SUVs, drop their kids off, and zoom off to work. School bus drivers want to do the same after dropping the 5 or 6 students whose parents allow them to ride a school bus to school.
Chief Farr lives closer to WV than to Arlington.
Agree with everything posted above...however, look at the crime stats. Two murders in Arlington during the past three years. Why? Patrol Division gets burned out responding to everything that's 'suspicious'. Plus, low income and middle income families have been and are being gentrified out to places like Dale City.
LOL...a couple months ago one of the operations offices from Alexandria appeared at the North Fairlington condo association meeting to answer questions because North Fairlington is in both Arlington and Alexandria. He was asked if he ever confers with Captain Quigley (3rd District Commander). He responded "Who is Captain Quigley?"
PC title for Christian Dorsey is: "low-income resident services facilitator".
"Agree with everything posted above...however, look at the crime stats. Two murders in Arlington during the past three years."
I'm curious to know what the number of unsolved missing persons reported are for Arlington Co? Just because there isn't a smoking gun or body doesn't mean there aren't crimes occurring in AC.
Seems more likely there is a problem with unsolved murders in the area. Feds and locals seems to be stumped and taking little to no action on finding the perpatrators. Eric John Larocque in Vienna,Va and Paul Matthew Zeller in Arlington come to mind.
Unsolved murders in Virginia are rare and becoming more rare.
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