July 25, 2008

One thing I hear over and over and over from emergency responders is that they need more funding. Money for training. More for community outreach and fire prevention. Money for equipment.

The New York Times had a story this week about a different kind of problem for emergency responders: too much money for the wrong things. The story is about the police force in Providence, RI (a wonderful part of New England, BTW, if you ever get the chance.) In the weeks and months and years after Sept. 11, the police force was awash in money for lots of terrorism-related things. It has a 27-foot patrol boat for the city's harbourfront. It has underwater cameras and intrusion detection systems. It has a bunch of SUVs for emergency response. It has a bomb containment truck,  special protective suits, mobile data terminals – the list goes on.

But what it doesn’t have – and hasn't since Sept 12, 2001 - is a terror threat. But since 2002, the department has received almost $12 million in security grants.

At the same time, criminal justice grants for things like overtime and hiring more officers have fallen to less than $4.5 million. And Providence has its share of crime problems. Funding for one program to fight violent crime was cut virtually in half this year and is scheduled to disappear altogether in 2009.

At a time of year when we're all thinking about where the money will come from in 2009 for the things we want to do, it's a sobering take on budgeting an priorities. You can read the the story on the New York Times site.