Job Cuts at YPD

[john r. swierz]

    How's this for a profound thought!!!   YPD needs to pick just one area of crime,attack it and  show that they have reduced or eliminated it. Some areas could be cars parking on the front yards, adults and juveniles walking on the streets, juveniles that we all see out on the streets after curfew hour. Need I go on!

[john r. swierz]

    The city has a grant thru the Green Team that contracts with the MCSD.  The two Deputies are Walker an Piper.  I know for fact that they are giving tickets to residents that have litter ,high grass,etc. Mon - Fri.  YPD officers have the authority to issue tickets to anyone that litters from vehicles, on foot or other kinds. Do they though?

[Toymaker]

If the YPD is so strapped for cash, why don't they throw a couple of cruisers up on 680 and hand out some tickets, I'm tired of going through there and trying to do the speed limit (50) and having to deal with people doing 70 or more.

Not a bad idea, but you'd get more bang for your buck if the police dept started TICKETING PEOPLE WHO LITTER! In the 30+ years since this became a law, I have NEVER heard of anyone getting a ticket for this!! And this is supposedly a fine of what, $200 or $500?? And trash is everywhere!

THE BEST PART: If a person can not pay, have them do community service - CLEANING UP LITTER! Or whatever needs cleaned up. Seeing all this crap on the roads, sidewalks, and parking lots is demoralizing. The reverse is also true - if cleaned up, it would lift people's spirits a bit.

I might reduce the fine to $100-200 and then hand those tickets out like they were going out of style.

STEEL BUILT AMERICA!

[john r. swierz]

     I would  say that it is just what you said "a rumor". YPD gets around a 100 thousand calls for service each year.  I beleive that a whole lot of citizens may not be happy with how they handle the calls.

[rusty river]

Rumor has it that the YPD has recently adopted the unofficial "policy" of only responding to murders, ignoring all other calls and complaints in retaliation against the threat of job cuts. I've heard of several instances now where calls have been made to the YPD repeatedly over several hours and the callers have been told that there are no available patrolmen due to "being tied up with homicides."

Has anyone else heard similar accounts?

[iwasthere]

i say to the naysayers about ypd walk in their shoes for one day then give them a grade.

[PMDragon]

Just like any place of employment, there are those workers that go above and beyond, those who do just enough to get by and those who do even less. As far as seeing YPD cruisers, I see them at least once a day and usually several times a day through the neighborhood. Response times any time I've called them generally is 10 to 15 min. and yes sometimes longer pending the urgency of the situation.  Often times when listening to the live feeds, the calls they receive are nonstop obviously leaving them to prioritize what gets tended to first. I believe if you want to be sure they speak to you about your call its best to let the dispatcher know that. Consider also that they rely on what a caller tells them so the clearer, more descriptive with correct address/ location info the better they are able to respond. I agree we need more cops on the streets.

[sfc_oliver]

Youngstown Police have never impressed me. I reported a young man firing a gun in the air, when they finally showed up they never asked him about the gun. Never came to me for any info either. It was all about a fight the guy supposedly fired the gun to break up. Two months later he killed 2 people with the same gun. (Thanksgiving 2000 time frame).

[AllanY2525]

Personally, I think there are some older, veteran officers that NEED to go.

A couple summers ago, some house strippers broke into the property next to
my place on Woodbine Ave, I was working in the house and saw them back a
pickup truck into the neighbor's driveway, and break into the place.

I called Y.P.D. - it took TWO HOURS for someone to show up, and the cop
that showed up turned right around and left after I told him what had happened
(the vandals were LONG gone by then, along with quite a bit of the neighbor's
copper pipe and some other belongings).

The first cop did not stay to fill out a report, because his shift was over in
5 or 10 minutes.  He basically said that I would have to wait until shift change
and then they would send another cruiser.

THIS IS REPREHENSIBLE for a seasoned, veteran officer.

Younger, newer officers might be just what the city needs - officers who are
more physically capable of dealing with the rigors of the job, who are newly
trained in the latest techniques, etc for law enforement, and more motivated
to do their jobs because they are not old, fat and lazy.

[Elmo-Ytown]

Personally I've had enough of driving all over the city and never seeing the police anywhere. We must have one of the lousiest departments in the state. Has anyone ever listened to them on the live feed? They sound so disorganized, and you just never see them, you can't go through Boardman without seeing 2 or 3 BPD cruisers, why don't you ever see the YPD? If the YPD is so strapped for cash, why don't they throw a couple of cruisers up on 680 and hand out some tickets, I'm tired of going through there and trying to do the speed limit (50) and having to deal with people doing 70 or more.

[iwasthere]

iwasthere have been asked several times to return to my formal place of employment while collecting my pension to ease the payroll cost of my former employer. the older pension workers do not need health insurance because they have receive it through their pension plan. this is another side of the coin when it comes to older workers, they are revered when it comes to save-costings methods to help the employer but the are not revered when it costs the company money. an older employee are not always sickly due do their age, my former employment had younger workers off with illnesses that costs the company monies too. one cannot be bias and say older workers costs companies more healthcare expense when the population is diverse in health issues.

[Toymaker]

... corporations are axing older workers to reduce the average age of the work force.  This is one way for the company to lower health insurance costs for the company.  Older workers are more likely to need health services so it is better to remove them from the payroll.

There's you COMPANY loyalty! Companies like this, and the people who run them, are an embarassment to the US. Consumers need to make their voices heard, directly or indirectly.

[irishbobcat]

That is why we need single-payer health care now in Ohio......so even public agencies like city administrations can save on insurance costs, keep older workers, and provide better and less expensive health care to all employees.

Dennis Spisak
Mahoning Valley Green Party
Ohio Green Party

[Towntalk]

Right you are, and it was pointed out that many of the companies that did it eventually went out of business, or lost a large percentage of their business because of the lack of skilled employees as in the case of Circuit City.

The big question is what will YPD do when it looses its best officers?

Can Youngstown afford on the job training?

[jay]

I also heard part of that show.  The side topic I found interesting was that corporations are axing older workers to reduce the average age of the work force.  This is one way for the company to lower health insurance costs for the company.  Older workers are more likely to need health services so it is better to remove them from the payroll.