Seems like it's all over but for the official announcement-- Springfield's Police Commissioner Flynn will be leaving Springfield less than halfway through his five-year contract for the greener pastures of Wilwaukee. Good riddance, as far as I'm concerned.
My beefs with Flynn are minor compared to his impact-- or lack thereof-- on our community. The last thing we need is another dose of cynicism.
Is violent crime really down in Springfield? You couldn't prove it by me, and nobody knows what figures to believe.
From Flynn's very first day in Springfield, he made it clear that he was going to focus on "quality of life" issues, changing the "perception" of downtown Springfield from dangerous to less dangerous. Part of changing the perception was driving out homeless people. What good has it done?
My civil libertarian friends won't agree with me, but I thought that placing cameras in strategic places downtown and elsewhere was a good idea. People are less likely to commit a crime if they think they can be easily identified and caught! Whatever happened to that initiative, does anyone know?
Maybe the best thing Flynn did was to create a Civilian Review Board. However, I was just on the Springfield Police Department website, and couldn't find any mention of the board.
The faster our city can move on from Flynn, the better.
2 comments:
I believe the first battery of cameras have been in place since about the springtime - in downtown, anyway - and they are planning on expanding out to outlying [troublesome] neighborhoods by early 2008.
I think Springfield is very fortunate that another city is taking that useless clown Flynn.Now they'll be a little less stench in the air.
D.J.
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