Petition

In the inbox: Petitions in support of priority funding for the Police Dept. and Public School System have been placed in several locations around Petersburg. PETERSBURG LIBRARIES – at the main desks at: McKenney Branch, 137 S Sycamore St, 733.2387 Rodolf Sholom Branch, 1865 S Sycamore St, 733.2393 A.P. Hill Branch, 1237 Halifax St, 733.2391 (also downstairs at […]

April 25, 2008; 1:38 AM • by brenda p

In the inbox: Petitions in support of priority funding for the Police Dept. and Public School System have been placed in several locations around Petersburg.

PETERSBURG LIBRARIES – at the main desks at:
McKenney Branch, 137 S Sycamore St, 733.2387
Rodolf Sholom Branch, 1865 S Sycamore St, 733.2393
A.P. Hill Branch, 1237 Halifax St, 733.2391 (also downstairs at the activity desk)

Petitions may also be found at:
JAVA MIO – 322 N Sycamore
KIMBERLY ANN’S – 246 N Sycamore St.
SIGNATURE STYLE POLISH POTTERY – 13 W Old St.
SYCAMORE ROUGE – 21 W Old St.
VIRGINIA OPTICAL CENTER – 1980 S Sycamore St.
THE BRICKHOUSE RUN – 407-409 Cockade Alley.

Please call 733.4495 if you can’t get to a petition to sign, and we’ll bring one to you. Also, WE NEED HELP in the various neighborhoods around Petersburg to walk around and collect signatures. Please call if you want blank forms.

We thank you for your support of this critical issue. Let’s help City Council make the difficult decision to place a funding priority on Police Dept and Public Schools budgets in FY09.

From the “Fact Sheet” –

Did you know that the starting salary of a police officer in Petersburg is $29,000? Compare that to Colonial Heights at $36,000, Goochland at $42,000, Hopewell at $33,500 and Richmond at $38,500.

Did you know the Police Department is authorized 107 officers and currently has only 80? They are 27 people below the manning that they are authorized because of the difficulty in recruiting with the lowest starting salaries in the region!

Did you know that patrol operations require 64 officers but currently we have only 36?

Did you know that Petersburg Police work 12 hour shifts due to lack of manpower AND have been in this mode since 2003?

Did you know that the Police Department has lost 16 officers in the last 3 years? 6 more officers are planning on retiring in the next 6 months and 4 resignations are currently pending!

Did you know … Petersburg has had so little success in recruiting and retaining quality officers due to lack of equitable pay, under-manning and overwork that the Police Department eliminated 14 positions that were needed but were unable to fill, just to distribute funding to provide incentive pay to retain the officers they still had?

Petersburg has some of the finest, hardest working law enforcement personnel in the region, but they are underfunded, undermanned, and overworked.

How long would you work at a job with longer hours, and less pay, if you could have the same job with more pay and fewer hours in another location within 20 miles?

Is there any wonder why “State Police crime statistics for 2007 indicate that Petersburg is central Virginia’s most dangerous place to live, based on the number of crimes for its size?” (Richmond Times Dispatch 27 March 2008)

SPEAK UP FOR PRIORITY FUNDING IN THE 2009 BUDGET FOR POLICE & EMERGENCY SERVICES AND OUR PUBLIC SCHOOL SYSTEM – THESE SERVICES SHOULD BE FUNDED FIRST WHEN FIGURING THE BUDGET

April 25, 2008 1:38 AM 0