Removing ‘public' from public safety

On Dec. 13 the Mexico Beach City Council is scheduled to take up a possible switch to the Bay County Sheriff’s Office for law enforcement services.

Moving away from the city’s police force has been an exploration, a “fact-finding” as it was labeled by city manager Chris Hubbard, to determine the viability of such a move.

According to Hubbard, as reported by Star Staff Writer Valerie Garman in a recent story, the research was undertaken to determine if costs could be reduced by such a change in law enforcement.

This is a laudable goal. In an era of shrinking public and private sector budgets, any taxing authority not seeking ways to save taxpayer dollars is falling down on the job.

But the intent would seem more laudable if the effort had taken place during the spring and summer months, as a run up to crafting the budget for the fiscal year that began with the first of October.

Instead, according to Hubbard, the city, in particular Mayor Al Cathey, approached Bay County Sheriff Frank McKeithen sometime in late summer for an audit of the city police department and presentation of what McKeithen’s office would offer as an alternative.

The presentation from McKeithen arrived during an October workshop, hardly the kind of timeframe that would realize any savings for 2011-12.

And McKeithen’s presentation, Hubbard indicated, highlighted no real savings for the city.

Hubbard said a move to the Sheriff’s Office for law enforcement would cost about as much, if not more, than the city currently spends on its police department.

Hubbard added, however, that the sheriff’s office would bring more resources to the task, such as crime scene investigators, detectives and the like.

That is indeed true, but it would be true regardless.

Mexico Beach is hardly a hot bed of crime. We are not talking the murder capital of Florida. We aren’t even talking the petit theft capital of Florida.

But should the horrific happen, as it has infrequently, and Mexico Beach has a murder or armed robbery or other serious criminal act, the sheriff’s office would certainly provide all the resources the city requested.

Those crime scene investigators and detectives – they would be at the city’s disposal to investigate a serious offense, likely taking the lead.

At its core, this contention is a red herring.

And when the two primary arguments offered by city officials for a switch have been knocked away, the foundation for such a proposal rapidly topples.

Consider the logistics.

Mexico Beach is separated from the rest of Bay County, as least as ribbons of highway go, by Tyndall Air Force Base, which has its own law enforcement presence.

The distance from Mexico Beach to the DuPont Bridge, roughly where one leaves Tyndall and enters the city of Parker, is more than 15 miles.

Depending on traffic on two-lane U.S. Highway 98, that is 15-20 minutes drive time, even with lights and sirens, just to reach the scene of any crime in Mexico Beach, and this scenario depends on responding deputy just happening to be in Parker, near the bridge, at the time.

And what if a drone crashes on the Tyndall base? What happens during the several instances each year, for myriad reasons, that the stretch of U.S. 98 along Tyndall is closed for base operations?

Sure, there is hope that a Gulf-to-Bay Highway will one day provide a sort of Back Beach Road around U.S. 98 between Gulf County and U.S. 231, but that day is well into the future.

In the meantime, the city of Mexico Beach would be protected – the central mission of law enforcement – by a force significantly distant in proximity.

In that light it makes far more sense to approach the Gulf County Sheriff’s Office, save issues of jurisdiction crossing county lines.

Consider also fire and EMS.

Mexico Beach is one of fewer than 10 municipalities in the state which have a public safety department encompassing the fire department and EMS as well as law enforcement.

All three operate under the same chief. Will Chief Brad Hall stick around after one-third, or more, is slashed from his salary and if not, what does the city do about leadership for fire and EMS?

City officials have been quick to state there will be no impact to fire and emergency medical protection, but that is a hollow statement given the makeup of the Department of Public Safety.

There is also a human element to the issue. The city would be choosing to put a half-dozen or so folks out of work with any switch. And isn’t a city the size of Mexico Beach better off with a police department that offers a more human touch, knowing residents by name as neighbors as much as suspects or victims?

Further, the police department was established by city charter; the Public Safety Department by ordinance. Can the council unilaterally alter the charter without citizen input?

For that is the overriding issue here, the willingness of city officials to shut the public out of the discussion. One of the fundamentals of government is protecting and serving its citizens, but the city council has thus far been allergic to public discussion on this topic.

McKeithen’s presentation at a workshop was just that, a presentation, with no input from the public and the public was denied the opportunity to fully explore the issue at last month’s regular meeting because the item wasn’t listed on the agenda – the governmental version of splitting hairs.

But the folks with the biggest stake in this discussion are residents, the public. It is their protection, their safety at play here, as well as their tax dollars. For them, it is far more than a bottom line issue.

And those residents deserve more of a say than they’ve had thus far in a matter as consequential as public safety.