Is using taxpayer resources again to campaign for re-election a crime?

Stormland TV actually did an interesting story comparing the crime rates of Sioux Falls to Lincoln, NE and Overland Park, KS.

While our mayor and police chief (and mayors and police chiefs before them) have been saying our crime rate grows with population, there is a different story in other towns, also factor in Lincoln has about 100K more people and they have around half the incidents that we do.

Why is that? Well I attribute it to having a community conversation when hiring a police chief instead of a fashion competition.

Apparently they only share that info with Stormland TV;

We’re digging into the report and what it means for you, coming up Monday night on KELOLAND News.

While Mayor Poops and Chief Thumbs did have a press conference about it this morning at City Hall, there has been NO data released on the city website. There is also NO YouTube videos of the presser, only on FB. I guess the City Council hasn’t had a formal presentation also. So is this how citizens need to get critical data about their city? Waiting for the news crew to dig into it or having to log on to FB? That data should have been available before the presser on the city website. The meeting also should have been a presented at a city council informational live on CityLink so it could be rewatched. But hey, they see it a different way;

The purpose of the meeting is to focus on transparency with the community. The Sioux Falls Police Department is one of just a few agencies across the county that still organizes daily police briefings.

Transparency? LOL. So where can I find a link to this report? This is obviously a political campaign stunt by a cruise control incumbent.

It only took almost two years after Paul was elected for him to kind of act on his campaign promise of better public safety;

The Long Game in Public Safety
By Mayor Paul TenHaken

People will occasionally ask me if Sioux Falls is still a safe community, and the answer is always “yes.” Year after year, Sioux Falls’ population has grown steadily as more and more people are drawn to Sioux Falls for career opportunities and our incredible quality of life. During this past year, our crime rate has maintained a low rate—especially when compared to other large cities.

I have often told people this argument rings hollow. The claim is our crime rate has simply grown in comparison to our population growth. Apparently a lot of newborns are dealing drugs and committing these crimes. A very large percent of our population growth is due to current residents having babies, this is something that is never brought up in our population growth problems.

Since I took office, we have expanded our team of police officers investigating drug dealers by adding an additional narcotics sergeant as well as a new Narcotics Crime Unit. These officers are focused on crime tips from members of the public to help put drug dealers out of business.

The rumor going around is that the police department is understaffed by over 20 officers. So while we are spending money to fix the State Theatre, and parapets on the Pavilion, we are not properly staffing our SFPD.

We continue to make strides toward opening the area’s first triage center to provide an alternative treatment path than jail or hospitals for addicts in the midst of a crisis.

Remember the argument for building the new Administration building? We were told the city has ran out of office space, but mysteriously we now have an entire empty building for a triage center. Don’t get me wrong, we need it. But instead of building an admin building 2 years ago we should have built a triage center in conjunction and attached to the new jail.

I’m glad Paul is putting our press releases about being tough on crime, but talk is cheap, and this should have been done the first day he walked into office. Because we all know, if you have a rising crime and drug problem it doesn’t go away by simply ignoring it for two years. Paul has ignored his charter regulated duties of managing the city, his most important and only job, that includes overseeing the police department. And the whole time he ignored these duties he violated the charter by trying to do the council’s job of legislating and setting budgets. It’s time for Paul to do his job and the council to do theirs.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=e7v0V58V3Uw

I know what you are thinking, a few contradictions there, but not really. I have often believed a tax hike in alcohol would actually help the bar business and give property tax payers a little relief from paying for criminals.

First the distribution issue. Distributors are clearly fighting this because of greed. But they have their excuses;

Distributors, meanwhile, said allowing craft breweries to work as producer, distributor and retailer in some capacity could create problems for the state in collecting tax revenue and for consumers in ensuring their beer meets quality standards.

Breweries would still be paying taxes and as for the quality issue, that is silly. Distributors ARE NOT testing the quality of the product, if they were Coors Light would no longer be available 🙂 This is clearly a way for distributors to reap a commission for basically doing nothing but acting like a keg taxi. Distributors would still be in the picture anyway for mass distribution. All brewers are asking is to brew more beer and sell it from their locations.

As for increasing the alcohol tax, I agree 100% with Minnehaha County Commissioner Jeff Barth that it is silly that property tax payers are footing the bill for crimes related to alcohol. I think if alcohol taxes increase, liquor stores and bars will charge more, which in turn could mean bigger profits and less consumption, which means less crime. MPR has a great story about this.

The Centers for Disease Control and Prevention estimates that the cost of excessive alcohol use is $2.05 per drink — costs that create financial burdens for federal, state and local governments.

“Currently, federal and state taxes do not even come close to covering those costs,” said Dr. Timothy Naimi, author of a recent article study on state alcohol excise taxes. “Public health is a strong rationale for alcohol taxation. … If we don’t recover the costs related to alcohol sales, then it amounts to a subsidy for people who drink, and who drink excessively.”

I don’t think the habits of casual drinkers would change with a tax increase, but I do think it would help to curb reckless drinking.

From a South DaCola foot soldier;

“I was out and about last night and was surprised at the number of street lights that were out. Sometimes 2 or 3 in a row. I was on the main roads too. I have often pondered why the cops don’t call these in? Sure they are busy but doesn’t lighting up the neighborhoods suppress crime? I did see the light department hard at work yesterday. They are putting up the X-mas lights at Falls Park. People form an opinion of a city by the way it’s maintained and cared for.”

When they are done at Falls Park, maybe they can paint some more Jesus Plows.