Henderson voters speak: Police don’t need help

Keith Paul

Thursday, Nov. 9, 2000 | 11:11 a.m.

Henderson residents voiced their opinion at the ballot box that their police department is doing a good job.

But it came in a form of affirmation that Police Chief Michael Mayberry didn't want. The voters shunned increasing their property tax to fund the hiring of more police officers at a department that already lags behind national averages in staffing.

"I have a sense that the fact that we provide good service worked against us," Mayberry said.

But in an election year when taxes were a central issue in the presidential debates, a narrow majority of Henderson voters -- 31,143 to 30,279 -- cast ballots against raising their property taxes 24 cents per $100 of assessed value to fund the public safety initiative.

Henderson Police has 1 to 1.1 officers per 1,000 residents, while the national average is about 2 officers per 1,000 residents.

"It seems to me that you have a prima facie case for the need of more officers," said Larry Hoover, the director of the Police Research Center at Sam Houston State University in Huntsville, Texas. "There could be a situation in the future that you've got a gang problem and wonder why. Well, it was because you didn't have the officers to do preventive measures."

Henderson does have a low crime rate for a city of its size. While there have been a few homicides this year -- including the slaying of two armored car guards during a robbery -- there were no killings last year and only a total of five in the preceding two years.

Mayberry and city officials will be meeting this week to determine what can be done to find some funding for the department. They all agree there is a need for more officers as Henderson's population continues to grow, but given the current budget something will have to give.

The no vote on the tax initiatives means that several programs Mayberry wanted to start will be put off -- most likely for years.

Proposals for a repeat offender unit, whose detectives target career criminals, and a sex offender apprehension unit will now be scrapped, Mayberry said.

"If there is some influx of crime, my officers will do everything to deal with it," Mayberry said. "But I do fear that if something like that happened, it will affect our response times and some of our (crime) solvability rate."

But Patrick Murphy, a former police commissioner in New York and Washington, D.C. and now a police management consultant, said some suburban departments can operate reasonable well with lower then national average staffing.

"Maybe the taxpayers are not living in fear of crime and just didn't see the need," Murphy said.

But city officials didn't expect to be in this position. Mayberry, Mayor Jim Gibson, and council members spoke with various groups urging them to approve the measure. Off-duty police officers even went door-to-door stumping for the initiative.

"It was obviously a huge surprise. Our polling showed a lot of support for it," said Councilman Jack Clark, who also is a Metro Police officer. "Maybe our citizens just feel right now they're safe enough."

City and police officials didn't preach doom and gloom when pushing for the tax hike for public safety funding, instead they spoke about the police and fire departments needed more people and equipment to provide more services for the growing city.

"We could have gone out and scared everyone half to death, but I didn't feel that was the truth," Gibson said. "We didn't think that fear should be used as a motivator. We have a police department that needs more resources, but that doesn't mean if they don't get it then criminals are going to own the streets."