Suwanee P.D. to resume using radar 1 March

The Suwanee Police Department will resume its revenue enhancement efforts via radar speed enforcement on 1 March.  After the recent agreement between local municipalities and Gwinnett County regarding the provision of various services, local police departments can resume using radar for traffic enforcement.  Suwanee must wait for reinstatment of its radar permit because its previous permit had expired.  

Here's a real knee slapper from the Gwinnett Daily Post article:

City leaders have said the need for it to return is primarily for public and highway safety, and not revenue generated by citations.

Umm...yeah.  I wonder if they said that with a straight face?  Apparently they think we missed the recent news that the absence of radar from Gwinnett roadways last year resulted in no significant increase in traffic accidents.  As I said above - Suwanee will resume its revenue enhancement efforts via radar speed enforncement on 1 March.  Watch out if you pass through the city - the City of Suwanee desperately needs wants your money.

Sheriff's Department assists cities with speed enforcement

Earlier this year, as a result of a dispute between Gwinnett County and local municipalities over the provision of services, the Gwinnett County Police Department and most cities in Gwinnett lost their ability to operate their radar and laser speed detection devices.  Sheriff Butch Conway has stepped into the breach to lend a helping hand to the cities.  Because the Sheriff Deoartment's permit to operate those devices is still valid, deputies have been assigned to operate radar guns and then allow city officers to issue citations.  I am not surprised that a high ranking officer from the Duluth Police Department, a department notorious for abusive traffic enforcement, is quoted in the article about the arrangement.  I imagine Sheriff Conway must be beside himself with joy to be back in the speed enforcement business.  When he was the police chief in Lawrenceville, that city was speed trap central.  Bottomline - though you should not be speeding, watch out.  The cities are back in the revenue enhancement game and you cannot assume that the Sheriff's car you see ahead is not running radar.

Former Tech hoops star arrested in Gwinnett on DUI charge

Former Georgia Tech basketball player and current New Orleans Hornets guard, Jarrett Jack, "was arrested in Gwinnett County Sunday morning on charges of DUI, speeding and failure to maintain lane" according to the Gwinnett County Sheriff's Department.  Jack was a key member of Georgia Tech's 2004 team that advanced to the NCAA championship game.

I am very disappointed to see a former Georgia Tech student-athlete in this kind of trouble.  Whether these athletes want to be role models or not, they are and this type of behavior sets a bad example.  That being said, Jack should not receive any harsher treatment by the legal system than a non-celebrity arrested on a similar charge.  Likewise, he should not receive any more lenient treatment.  He should be treated just as you or I would be if we had made the incredibly dumb decision to drink and drive.

If you want to speed in Gwinnett, now is your chance!

Let me first say, I am not advocating that you go out and flagrantly violate speed limits in Gwinnett.  But if you do, the Gwinnett County Police and most municipal police departments won't be able to ticket you using radar or laser speed detection devices.  Due to an ongoing dispute with local cities over the provision of services, the ability of police departments to use radar and laser speed guns has been suspended under a 1998 state law.

I have a hard time having a lot of sympathy on this one.  While I realize that traffic enforcement is a legitimate function of police departments and that there are definitely a minority of dangerous drivers that should be punished, I don't think there is much doubt that, despite the protests of law enforcement officials, a large part of traffic enforcement is all about the money.  While I have no hope this will ever happen, I would love to see the state legislature pass a law that somehow decouples writing traffic citations and the local government directly reaping financial gains from those efforts.  If all traffic fines went into a state fund rather than the local treasury, I firmly believe you would see a significant drop in the excessive, and with some municipal police departments (e.g., Duluth PD), abusive traffic enforcement.  We would quickly find out just how many speeding tickets are about safety.   As they say, follow the money.

In the meantime while the dispute remains unresolved, perhaps local police departments will actually do something like fighting crime.

Commission approves more than $200 million in budget cuts

The Gwinnett County Commission voted last week to approve over $225 million in budget cuts.  As I wrote earlier last week, some residents were unhappy with some of the cuts, especially those targeting the budgets for the police and fire departments.  While automatically opposing budget cuts for public safety is understandable, the key here is at what are these cuts targeted?

First, let's be absolutely clear: deeps cuts were in order. Cuts are more palatable than a tax increase. Where I take issue is where these cuts were targeted.  Prior to the meeting, there was speculation that the Gwinnett "Quality of Life" unit could be on the chopping block.  Given this unit's focus of fighting property rights more so than real crime, I was completely in favor of such a cut.  However, rather than ax the Quality of Life unit, the board opted to cut the DUI task force.  I do not understand this move! One fights property rights - the other fights criminals that could kill you on our highways! The Quality of Life unit should have be at the top of the cuts for the police department.  Of course, I am hardly surprised that retaining funding for the Quality of Life unit was proposed by Mike Beaudreau whose commission track record is hardly one of championing property rights.

Regarding police department funding in general, when I stop seeing police officers parked along the road running radar/laser equipment to catch speeders as opposed to fighting real crime, I might get a little more upset about budget cuts for the department. In the last couple of weeks, I have seen three cops parked along Ronald Reagan Parkway doing speed enforcement. I see others near the Park Place Bridge on US 78. Coupling this with funding Quality of Life to go out worrying about how how far nails protrude and other victimless crimes, I cannot get too upset at at the cuts. When all police department funds are used to fight real, serious crime and not harass property owners or man radar guns, I will get upset at the cuts.

I would like to note, however, that, as critical as I often am of Comissioner Beaudreau, I do find myself in total agreement with one of his proposals.  Beaudreau offered an excellent idea to charge non-county residents for using Gwinnett County parks.  In fact, as a daily user of my local park, I would support a user fee for all those who actually use the parks, whether resident or not. The community does benefit from the parks so a county-funded system is appropriate. However, because those of us who actually go to the park and use the amenities benefit more, we should pay more than someone who does not. A user fee could be a nominal amount, perhaps $25 per year, just to ensure that the cost burden of these facilities is born more by those who use the system. A user fee would also capture direct contribution from those who use the facilities but are not property owners and, as such, do pay not the property taxes that fund the bulk of county government.

One other suggestion for revenue that I have not seen discussed is ads on Gwinentt transit buses.  (I read this suggestion from a Buzz reader, I believe, but I cannot find the reference.  I apologize that I cannot properly credit you for bringing this idea to my attention.)  When the county is in need of every drop of revenue it can get, why has the transit system not exploring selling ads?  MARTA does this, why not Gwinnett?  I do not know how much money this would raise, but whatever it raises would be some decrease in the severity of the county budget cuts.

The fiscal situation that Gwinnett County faces is very serious.  No one said any of the paths that could be taken through the woods would be easy, but I must commend the commissioners for choosing the right path - reigning in the size and cost of government as opposed to siphoning even more dollars out of our pockets.  I would much rather be bickering over what to cut than a tax increase.

Citizens oppose spending cuts

As the Gwinnett County Commission prepares to "vote on $225 million in proposed cuts to the operating budget through 2014," some county residents are opposing proposed law enforcement funding cuts.  I would ask them, what else is the commission supposed to do?  While I have been very critical of this board, they did the right thing by refusing to raise property taxes.  Given that a nontrivial reason we are in this fiscal mess is that monument to government mismanagement, Gwinnett (Taxpayers) Stadium, I absolutely oppose a tax increase.  Had our commissioners kept Gwinnett County focused on the core, limited responsibilities of government, I would be more open to recognizing the need for, and possibly supporting, a tax increase.  However, the commissioners made some very poor decisions in building that unneeded baseball stadium and now they should have to make the hard decisions of finding places to cut spending.

While I do not want to see police funding cut in general, I would be more concerned about these cuts if I did not see police officers parked alongside Gwinnett roads running radar/laser speed detection equipment.  I understand the need for traffic enforcement, but why not redeploy these officers to fighting real crime and let them do traffic stops while engaged in their normal patrols?  I would note that if the cuts are used on Gwinnett's so-called "Quality of Life" unit, then the negative impact to enforcing important laws is lessened.  The Quality of Life unit spends a lot of taxpayer dollars fighting property rights rather than the crime that is all too common in Gwinnett.

Thus, while we may feel some pain in the cuts that are eventually made, they are much easier to swallow than a tax increase in the aftermath of wasting millions of taxpayer dollars on the Government-funded Gwinnett Braves new baseball stadium.

Red light cameras - it's all about money

I was under the impression that local governments were implementing red light cameras for safety purposes.  Isn't that what we were lead to believe when these Big Brother elements were introduced by Gwinnett cities?  Well, now that ticket revenues are on the decline, Gwinnett cities are ready to scrap the devices.

Duluth, Lilburn, Norcross, Snellville and Suwanee have either suspended use of the cameras or plan to stop the service altogether.

City officials agree the cameras, which monitor and record red-light violations, are working. Violations, accidents and injuries are down. But so are citations, which help pay for the automated ticketing program that can cost some cities more than $400,000 a year to Norcross-based LaserCraft.

So, I guess if a city does not make money from the Big Brother devices, they are willing to forego the safety benefits.  Don't get me wrong.  I have been opposed to these cameras since day one.  No, I have never been cited by one - I stop for red lights! - and I can certainly see how it would make drivers more careful at monitored intersections.  However, the idea that I can be ticketed for someone else who might be driving my car is absurd.  

When did the police department become a profit center for government?  Granted, there has been strong suspicion that some municipal police departments are often little more than revenue collection agencies, but this story leaves little doubt.  Such motivation is even more reason that the Georgia General Assembly should enact legislation that bans cities under a certain population from having a local police department.  At a minimum, legislators should address how revenues from traffic enforcement are used.  The direct link between enforcement efforts and revenue should be broken.  If it were, I think we would see just how many city speed traps are motivated by safety.

287(g) to receive greater scrutiny - why?

The federal 287(g) program that empowers local law enforcement to assist in the identification and deportation of illegal immigrants will soon be the subject of greater federal scrutiny.  The questionm however, is why?  According to the article, Cobb County's program is doing exactly what it should be doing - helping to deport those who have come to the United States illegally.

A recent Government Accountability Office report questioned its effectiveness. GAO, the investigative arm of Congress, reported that authorities failed to determine how many of the thousands of people deported under the program were the kind of violent felons it was devised to root out.

...

As a result, some law enforcement agencies focused on people arrested for relatively minor crimes, the GAO said.

So let me get this straight.  We should only deport those who commit major crimes?  Should we simply ignore the fact that being in the country illegally is a crime in and of itself?  By this line of thinking, perhaps the feds would prefer that a police officer simply let someone go because they only had a small amount of cocaine rather than enough to traffic?

Now the feds are going to step in and assist local law enforcement in administering the program.

To address the GAO’s concerns, ICE officials say the new agreements will specify who should be arrested, how the arrests should be made, how data are to be collected, and how ICE will supervise the program.

Am I the only one who is astounded that the Obama administration is effectively turning a blind eye to all but a portion of the illegal immigration problem?  Frankly, by effectively saying "We won't deport you so long as you keep your crimes minor" does not surprise me from a party that has largely taken a position of coddling illegal immigrants.  Any more of you now suffering buyer's remorse over your Obama vote?

Gwinnett "epicenter" of Atlanta drug activity

An article in the USA Today about Mexican drug cartel activity in Atlanta, fingered Gwinnett County as "the 'epicenter' of the region's drug activity."  If you were not already convinced that our porous international borders was a legitimate problem, consider this:

An added attraction for the cartels, say Nahmias and Rodney Benson, the DEA's Atlanta chief, is the explosive growth of the Hispanic community.

Nahmias calls northeast suburban Gwinnett County, about 30 miles northeast of Atlanta, the "epicenter" of the region's drug activity.

Gwinnett's Hispanic population surged from 8,470 in 1990 to 64,137 in 2000, according to the Pew Hispanic Center. Now, 17% of the county's 776,000 people are Hispanic.

"You see Mexican drug-trafficking operations deploying representatives to hide within these communities in plain sight," Benson says. "They were attempting to blend into the same communities as those who were hard-working, law-abiding people."

If there were not a significant number of illegals living in Gwinnett, perhaps our communities would not be so attractive to drug trafficers.  I would imagine that the skiddishness of illegals for law enforcement keeps many otherwise law-abiding residents from tipping off authorities about dealers.  (And, no, blanket amnesty is not the solution.  You don't cure the problem of legitimate crime by legalizing it.)  Since President Barack Obama's administration is unlikely to take any measures to seriously combat illegal immigration, we can only hope that Gwinnett's participation in the ICE 287(g) program will make our county less attractive to illegals and perhaps drug cartels.  If not, an environment infested with drug activity will only drive more law-abiding citizens out of Gwinnett, thus exacerbating the problem.

Church offers reward in murder of businessman

A week ago I blogged about the murder of Dekalb businessman Marc Stewart.  Mr. Stewart's church, New Birth Missionary Baptist Church in Lithonia, is offering a reward of $10,000 "for information leading to the arrest and conviction of those responsible for the murder of Marc A. Stewart."  From the church's press release:

Stewart was a faithful member of New Birth Missionary Baptist Church in Lithonia and a well known DeKalb county record company executive. “We offer our deepest sympathy and support to Stewart’s family and pray that God will comfort their pain and sorrow during this time of deep grief,” says Bishop Eddie L. Long, senior pastor, New Birth Church. “We are hopeful that the reward offer will assist investigators in finding justice for the Stewart family and send a message to the community that the killing must stop.” Anyone with information about this incident is asked to contact the Gwinnett County Police Department Criminal Investigations Division at (770) 513-5300 or call anonymously on the Gwinnett County Police Department’s tip line at (770) 513-5390. The public should not contact New Birth Church with information about the investigation.

I would also add that, if you have information, please do not contact the Buzz either.  (I only note this because I received a couple emails seeking help with residents' garbage bills last month.)