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Highlands Today

Disbanding Avon Park Police is not a good idea

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The Tampa Tribune

Published: June 26, 2009

The city of Avon Park is between a rock and a hard place. Not enough money is flowing in and too much is flowing out. It sounds like most of our personal budgets. Big cuts are necessary and easy fixes are non-existent. It's a bigger problem than many people living in the city realize. While we understand the difficulty of the problem, we don't believe eliminating the police department is the answer.

A city the size of Avon Park should have a police department. The people living there deserve to know that they are being protected by a locally controlled agency and by officers who know the town intimately.

We don't say this to knock the Highlands County Sheriff's Office. City officials are checking with the sheriff's office to see what kind of savings could be found if the police department was eliminated and duties shifted to the county. It just makes sense that a local police department can and will do a better job protecting a particular community, unless there are extenuating issues that prevent quality law enforcement.

In our opinion, Avon Park Police Chief Matt Doughney is doing a fine job considering the hand he's been dealt. Through no fault of his own he's seen his department decimated due to some bad cops, some bad luck and tragic circumstances. Add to that too many open positions and it's amazing he hasn't blown out of town. He hasn't, though, and he has good men and women working hard to keep Avon Park safe.

With all that said, though, the city still has a big budget problem with few good ways out of it. Just like businesses facing incredibly tough times, the city will have to whittle down to the essentials. That means city provided utilities and roads, plus public safety are the main concerns. Everything beyond that should be on the table for cuts.

Of course, the city council already understands this and our superficial suggestions aren't much help. We just believe that disbanding the police department would be a big mistake unless that's the only alternative left. Let's hope it doesn't come to that.

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