Friday, April 4, 2003 | 5:46 a.m.
WEEKEND EDITION: April 6, 2003
Sheriff Bill Young made his No. 1 priority clear when he took office in January. He wants to combat crime by keeping the growth of Metro Police proportional to the population growth within its jurisdiction. He said Metro answered 3.5 million calls last year and is projected to answer 3.8 million calls this year. "We need two police officers for every 1,000 people," Young told the Sun's Editorial Board in February. "We're now at 1.7 and trending downward." He said the department was at least 300 officers short.
His first budget proposal, announced Feb. 24 and totaling $400 million -- about $85 million more than the current budget -- reflected his concern for getting more officers and civilian employees on the payroll. Metro's jurisdiction covers Clark County and the city of Las Vegas, whose governments fund the department. Officials with both governments said that was too much of an increase. Young scaled his proposal to $364 million, but it was still too much. Last week he presented the city and county with another scaled-down proposal -- $358 million, which would add 103 officers and 38 civilians to take emergency calls.
Again, both governments wanted a further reduction, a reaction that tested Young's patience. "I'm committed to putting more officers out on the street. If we don't, then that's your call," Young told the City Council.
Our view is that Councilman Michael McDonald, a former Metro officer, was on the right track when he said he'd rather see more cops on the street than have the city sending out newsletters or operating a TV station. Printing and mailing costs for the city's primary newsletter, "City Talk," are about $220,000 a year. The city's TV station, KCLV Channel 2, uses nearly all of the $1.4 million the city receives from franchise fees paid by cable television subscribers. If the city were to cease publication of City Talk and shut down its TV station, redirecting the franchise fees to Metro, there would be at least another $1.5 million available. This would be a small start on the extra $12 million that Young's revised budget would cost the city. But the idea is sound -- cutting non-essential services to shore up essential services.
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