Government needs to support police I feel...

Government needs

to support police

I feel relatively safe in Huntington Beach. But I feel that public

safety is the government’s No. 1 priority and if Police Chief Ken

Small feels that he is understaffed, local government needs to

correct the budget ASAP. If it means higher local taxes to make up

for the state’s stupidity, then so be it.

The Huntington Beach police helicopters are a reassuring sound,

even though they do sometimes wake us. Helicopters make a lot of

sense in an age when it is impossible to have police in a

neighborhood walking a beat. And patrol cars just don’t have the

visual advantage of a helicopter.

I hope that the force continues its great job and gets better

cooperation from the budget makers.

BILL ARMSTRONG

Huntington Beach

Too many officers just don’t add up

I read your question about feeling less safe with fewer police.

When this subject first came up some months ago, I was inclined to go

along with the Police Chief Ken Small and let them have their extra

10 new officers.

However, let me relate a recent incident that changed my mind. My

20-year-old son received a ticket in front of his house for riding

his small 50cc motor bike without a helmet. But that’s not the issue.

Although the ticked cost $179, I don’t see how it begins to cover the

cost of our police department to issue such a ticket. Why does it

take a hovering helicopter, three squad cars and two motor patrolmen

to issue one ticket? The combined hourly salary of these six to eight

people and equipment has got to be expensive, to say the least.

Maybe the City Council and/or the chief of police need to go back

to Economics 101, then tell us they really do need more people to

cover our great city of Huntington Beach.

MORIE HIVELY

Huntington Beach

Police don’t seem to have priorities right

I’ve seen how the police seem to have a lot of time to spend on

unimportant issues, in my opinion. I was taking my son to school

yesterday and I noticed a motorcycle policeman giving two

sixth-graders tickets on their bicycles, and I’ve seen this several

times throughout the year, so I’m kind of convinced that if they have

the time to spend handling those kinds of crime -- if you want to

call it a crime -- maybe they’re not using their time very well or

very wisely.

Maybe they should be responding to somebody who really needs help

instead of hassling these kids on their way to school. Maybe it would

be a good idea to cut down their response times and go to somebody

who calls them who actually needs them.

Maybe it’s just about generating income with the tickets and the

traffic school, but perhaps they should focus on crimes, ones that

are real crimes and ones that people really do need the police

officers’ help, rather than giving kids tickets on their bikes for

loose chin straps or going the wrong way.

BECKY WEINTHAL

Huntington Beach

A few suggestions for the new supt.

Some of my suggestions for the new Ocean View School District

superintendent would be as follows. Review the Wal-Mart lease, which

currently is $250,000 a year, for an increase. Assess transfer of

district students to diverse middle schools by evaluating the

effectiveness of this policy. Restore confidence to the district by

appointing, with board approval, a diverse community committee. And

create an atmosphere by the superintendent’s leadership to work with

school board members of divergent views and refrain from inter-board

politics by maintaining a focus on the students and the goals of the

district.

CAROL KINOD

Huntington Beach

Single-family homes right for Newland

I think that single-family homes should be built on the empty oil

tank fields on Newland Street because there’s already enough density

in Huntington Beach, especially along Pacific Coast Highway and

multiplexes are going to be a problem with the Strand and all these

other complexes going in along the beach.

TRISH GRAY

Huntington Beach