PelhamToday received two letters to the editor concerning James Culic's Hot Take column last week, regarding the Niagara Regional Police Service's budget:
Defund the NRPS? Couldn't disagree more
After reading James Culic’s views on the NRPS, I couldn't disagree more! What I believe needs to be done is to have enough officers hired to stop overtime pay. Let's face it, we all know a cop or two and they'll tell you the same story about overtime. They'll work their buddy’s shift then they reciprocate. This drives up the amount of money needed for funding. Also, they could work with a labour pool of sorts, so if someone calls in for whatever reason they can pull from it to eliminate overtime.
Let's face it, we are in rough shape in terms of crime increasing in the Niagara region. Also, Regional workers are sucking up a great deal of tax dollars. These workers have it made in the shade. I witnessed the other day one Region worker actually working and three others standing watching the lone worker. This irritates me to no end.
Terry Purser
Niagara Falls
NRPS costs way more than service provided
I thoroughly enjoy James Culic’s columns, and last week I especially liked the defund the police article. The police force in this region is pathetic...to say the least! The officers are lazy, misinformed, do not know the laws and put their own spin on situations which they know nothing about.
We have a situation that involves being severely bullied by a neighbor who has no cause to do so, we have had many police visits to deal with this, and I am appalled as to how we have been treated by police—all because our neighbor has some sort of influence or “is somebody” in this town.
We have complained about three or four officers and nothing ever amounts to anything. The officers seem to be poorly trained, some have bad attitudes, and generally now we won’t even call police any longer. We have lost faith in a system that has failed us tremendously.
Seems like every year the police budget increases dramatically—yet service decreases dramatically. Look at what is happening in the U.S. People there are recording their situations with police in order to have an accurate record of events and what was spoken by everyone involved.
People do not trust the police and I believe rightly so according to what we have experienced, seen and heard in our interactions with police. And for the record—we are not criminals. We are just ordinary seniors, trying to live in peace.
Defunding of the police budget should be done. Actually if an honest accounting firm from outside can be found, it would be a good idea to scrutinize the police budget requests.
We live in Pelham where maybe you might see a couple cop cars once in a while—where you may wait hours or days to have a police officer attend a situation—even if they ever attend! Question is, where the hell are all of the officers that are supposed to be on duty here? We are not lacking when it comes to the number of police officers that are supposed to be serving this region. Indeed we do not need more of them.
We need someone to come in and shake up this lazy police force that has become too comfortable and complacent in their “gravy train” positions and get an honest day’s work for what our tax dollars pay for, because we have been paying more and more every year but getting less and less for our money.
What a sh*t hole area we live in. Sorry I ever moved here.
Thanks James, your article is bang-on. Keep up the good work.
Larry Sztogryn
Fenwick
