Victim: More police needed
By Chip Womick
Staff Writer, The Courier-Tribune
LIBERTY - A Liberty resident attacked in her home earlier this month
told commissioners at their regular meeting Monday night that she thinks
the town needs more police officers and that they should be paid more.
The 41-year-old East Raleigh Avenue resident fought off the attacker
in the middle of the night on Jan. 12 after he broke in through a locked
window and attacked her where she had fallen asleep on her living room couch.
Eventually, the man fled and the woman ran to her neighbor's house for help.
When an officer arrived, the woman said, he could not immediately search
her house because policy required that he wait for backup. That night, there
was only one officer on duty.
"There was no one to go look and see if they could find this animal,"
the woman said.
Still recovering from injuries in the attack, the woman said that she
has since learned that when she moved to town in 1996, the police force
numbered 12. Now, there are 10 officers.
"I realize no matter how many we have their eyes and ears can't
be everywhere," she said.
She said she thinks some turnover in the town's police force is because
officers can make more money elsewhere.
"The pay that we pay these officers and to expect them to put their
life on the line, and by themselves, at 3 o'clock in the morning is not
enough," she said.
"... I'd just like to know who would like to be a new police officer
at $23,000 and be by themselves at 3 in the morning? Anybody?"
"That's a good question," replied Mayor John Stanley, who added
that he believes the current police department is the best he's seen in
his 30 years in town - and that law enforcement receives the biggest slice
of the budget pie every fiscal year.
"I certainly sympathize with what you are saying," Stanley
said. "The difficulty in every community is, do you have enough money
to hire enough people, and the answer usually is no. ... I wish we could
compete with Charlotte and with Greensboro to pay policemen what these towns
can pay them, but we can't."
Stanley said that the small town of Liberty averages 50-60 arrests monthly.
An alarming fact, he said, is that 40-50 percent of the arrests involve
a crime of some sort.
"We have a very mean society now," he said. "It's very
mean."
Liberty Police Chief Jerry Brown noted that the suspect in the Jan. 12
attack was arrested and jailed five days after the assault, thanks to information
from the woman, work by his officers and the cooperation of neighboring
law enforcement agencies. He also said that a Liberty officer was at the
scene of the attack 80 seconds after receiving the call.
Brown said that by rotating schedules he tries to get maximum coverage
for town residents, but sometimes resources are spread thin with a staff
of 10 officers who each must have time off for vacation and sickness or
away from patrol duty for training, to go to court or to transport prisoners
to the county jail in Asheboro.
"I'd love to have more police officers, but we're constrained by
budget," he said.
The town force dropped from 12 to 10 officers, Brown explained, when
federal funding for one position was lost and when Liberty School's middle
school students were reassigned to a new middle school out in the county.
The D.A.R.E. officer position the town of Liberty had was then transferred
to the sheriff's department.
"You've certainly given us some food for thought," Stanley
said. "We just don't want what happened to you to happen to somebody
else."
The woman added that she also thinks people need to take more notice
of what's going on around them.
"We need to be more aware of our surroundings," she said.
The mayor agreed.
"If you're suspicious of something or someone, don't hesitate to
call the police department and tell them," he said.
Copyright 2002, Stephens Media Group
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