I recently read that the police department is ending their take home patrol car program for their officers. This is a bad idea from several different aspects.

Ending the program would only save Vicksburg a few hundred dollars a month in fuel costs. I would think that is simply a drop in the bucket for a serious economic cutback.

Second, every national study that has been conducted has proved that police presence deters crime. I know that I feel a lot safer with a police car parked down the street from my house.

Let’s also not forget police officers’ morale. These brave men and women put their own safety at risk every day so that we can stay safe. Is it too much to ask to let them take their cars home? This saves them several hundred dollars a month in maintaining a car to only go back and forth to work in.

I know of a small budget cut that would save Vicksburg in excess of $120,000 a year: Cut the two positions of deputy chief.

There is no police department in the metro area the same size or even larger than the VPD that has two deputy chiefs. Madison, Brandon, Pearl, Ridgeland and Clinton police departments are all very progressive agencies that seem to do rather well without these two positions.

Well, this is just a thought.

Dee Derrington

Vicksburg