Daily Archives: January 8, 2007

City Council, City of Peoria, Peoria Police

Reader poll: What is adequate police protection?

7 Comments

In my last reader poll, I asked the question, “What are essential services?” and the answers were terrific — very enlightening. Certainly there was a lot more disagreement than I thought there would be, but there was one thing, and one thing only, on which everyone agreed: police protection is an essential service.

But how do we assess whether this essential service is adequately provided by the City? What would the City have to do for us each to say, “yes, they’ve adequately provided for police protection in Peoria”?

Is it as simple as staffing x-number of cops on the beat? Is it solely punitive, or is there a prevention or early-intervention component to having adequate police protection (e.g., could some funding for education be considered an investment in crime prevention, and in that sense be considered part of providing adequate police protection)? Is it a funding issue — having enough money for all the communications and other equipment needed?

I think a distinction needs to be made here for the purposes of this question not becoming too large. I’m talking about what the City Council can do to adequately provide police protection. I’m not looking for a critique of the police department’s or the state’s attorney’s effectiveness or what they can do better at this point. Just from a Council perspective, at what point are you/we satisfied that they (the Council) are doing enough, and any problems or shortcomings are someone else’s fault other than the Council’s?

City Council, City of Peoria

Grayeb seeks to trample private property rights

37 Comments

From the Journal Star over the weekend:

Calling the city “behind the curve,” Councilman Chuck Grayeb says people in Peoria deserve the right to enjoy dinner without a side order of second-hand smoke.

I can suggest several options for Mr. Grayeb and the “people in Peoria” about whom he’s concerned. Here’s a list of smoke-free restaurants from the Illinois Department of Health. In addition, Mr. Grayeb is free to start his own smoke-free restaurant — he’ll certainly have time for a new venture now that he’s leaving the council.

Of course, neither of those options are Grayeb’s solution. He’d rather trample private property rights:

To that end, he plans to push for a referendum in the next few months banning smoking in Peoria restaurants.

I think this is focusing on the wrong problem. Instead, the council should be doing something to stop the gangs that are tying people up and forcing them to eat in restaurants that allow smoking!