Jan. 16, 2007 -- The continuing emphasis on funding Homeland Security is hurting the Police Department's efforts to fill vacant positions, according to Police Chief Nannette Hegerty.

"What we're doing now is Homeland Security to the regret of hometown security," she told the Common Council's Public Safety Committee last week.

The federal government used to be involved in helping local governments pay for police staffing through grant programs like COPS, she said.

Hegerty

"What we're getting right now is a number of homeland security grants, which are fine, except that you can only use Homeland Security grants for equipment," she said. " "Equipment is great, and you can do better things with better equipment and with more equipment, but there comes a point in time where you just need to have more officers."

"We really need more people," she said.

Having more officers would allow police to do real community-oriented policing, with plenty of foot patrol and beat officers working in neighborhoods getting to know residents, she said. Currently, officers spend most of their time responding to calls and so do not have that opportunity, she said.

Officers are so busy with those "hitches" that their ability to write citations also has been compromised because enforcing ordinances that result in citations requires free time, which officers do not have, Hegerty said.

"I have met with our senators and I have talked to them personally, about we need help from the federal government, we need money from the federal government," she said.