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Home > Waco Breaking News > Archives > 2008 > September > 03 > Entry
Waco Police Association wants more resources to fight crime
The Waco Police Association has taken its case for more resources to battle violent crime in Waco to the steps of City Hall.
Anne Cyr, the association president, said in an 11 a.m. news conference on the Waco City Hall steps that it has been rebuffed in attempts to meet with the mayor and city council on the issue. Cyr said the group has sent three letters to the mayor and city council and received two rejection letters and no response to the third.
She said Waco officers need more resources to fight violent crime in the city, but didn’t specify what resources are needed.
Cyr added that the association has begun running commercials on local stations starting today. The commercial also is on the group’s Web site, wacopa.org, which says that Waco is the seventh most violent city in Texas, according to a 2006 report that is on the site.
The commercial is below. It touts headlines from the Trib as examples of the crime problem. Small point, though: The headlines in the video aren’t exactly what has been in the newspaper. We don’t put exclamation marks in our headlines as two of those indicate, nor do we capitalize most words in our headlines.
Permalink | Comments (14) | Post your comment | Categories: City hall, Headlines, Police & crime
Comments
By Fred
September 3, 2008 12:42 PM | Link to this
Hey Waco Tribune? Wake up and smell the coffee! They are trying to make the community safer and the Waco Tribune is worried about Capitalization and Exclamation Marks? It makes the Waco Trib (that’s you Ken Sury) look like of bunch of anti-Police smucks. Who cares about your silly grammer Ken Sury? Why don’t you explain your “grammer concerns” to the elderly lady who got beaten to a pulp and robbed at her own home? Just hope that the next victim isn’t your grandmother Ken Sury.
By Ken
September 3, 2008 1:38 PM | Link to this
Fred: My point is that if you use Trib headlines (or anyone’s headlines for that matter) to prove your point, use them as written and don’t overplay them with the use of exclamation marks. The fact that those are headlines on crime stories should be sufficient to make your case.
By WPDLEO
September 3, 2008 1:40 PM | Link to this
Now now, Fred, or Joe, whatever your name is. Ken is simply correcting the Association hyperbole. And it is grammar, by the way.
By Fred
September 3, 2008 2:11 PM | Link to this
Ken Sury: We’re not talking about professional writers with post-graduate English degrees here. These unselfish, hard-working Waco Police Officers are “crime fighters” who are grossly understaffed and over-worked. They were making a point about the violent crime which has infected and enveloped Waco; and in making their “point” they used an “exclamation point”! Now Ken Sury; your “point” is not a point at all, but rather a “spin”…….and anti-Waco Police “spin”.
By Every Villiage Has One...
September 3, 2008 3:40 PM | Link to this
… and Fred is ours.
By Watchful
September 3, 2008 3:43 PM | Link to this
Very touchy, “Fred”. I think Ken was fully justified. The point was to that they exagerated a headline by adding exclamation points, and he was correct in pointing out that it was not the Trib’s work. There is no anti-police spin or even anti-Waco Police spin….. unless…. Hmm…..now it makes sense, along with all your past comments…. What shift do you work at WPD?
By Idiot
September 3, 2008 4:25 PM | Link to this
Yes, and Fred is our King. Leave him alone!
By Just a Citizen
September 3, 2008 7:52 PM | Link to this
I would like to know why won’t the council talk or listen to the the officers. Seems like they would want to listen to city employees concerns.
By Frank Strong
September 3, 2008 8:20 PM | Link to this
The recent shooting at the Central Texas Marketplace last week illustrates the danger to every citizen in Waco. My daugter-in-law was there about half an hour before the bullets began flying. The police couldn’t protect her.
Listen to a police scanner if you want to know what danger you are really in. Calls to police pile up and are held every evening as officers rush to settle one problem after another. You will hear dispatchers say, “Holding a robbery in progress, no officers to send.” Or, “Holding an assault in progress, no officers to send.” It happens daily, yet the city council refuses to put more officers on the streets during peak hours.
Want to be safe in Waco? Better get your CHL and pack some heat. It still won’t protect you from flying bullets but it may keep you from being robbed, raped, or murdered at a local mall.
Our police officers deserve our respect and admiration, but they also deserve to have the best equipment available, ample manpower to staff each shift, and good pay and benefits that will attract qualified applicants to the force.
What will it take to make the city council take the steps required to make Waco a safer place for our families and for our children? Why won’t the council meet with and listen to the police officers who work the streets and put their lives on the line each and every day? What are they thinking? Maybe it’s time to replace the city council and the city manager with people who care about Waco!
By Frank Strong
September 3, 2008 8:25 PM | Link to this
The recent shooting at the Central Texas Marketplace last week illustrates the danger to every citizen in Waco. My daughter-in-law was there about half an hour before the bullets began flying. The police couldn’t protect her.
Listen to a police scanner if you want to know what danger you are really in. Calls to police pile up and are held every evening as officers rush to settle one problem after another. You will hear dispatchers say, “Holding a robbery in progress, no officers to send.” Or, “Holding an assault in progress, no officers to send.” It happens daily, yet the city council refuses to put more officers on the streets during peak hours.
Want to be safe in Waco? Better get your CHL and pack some heat. It still won’t protect you from flying bullets but it may keep you from being robbed, raped, or murdered at a local mall.
Our police officers deserve our respect and admiration, but they also deserve to have the best equipment available, ample manpower to staff each shift, and good pay and benefits that will attract qualified applicants to the force.
What will it take to make the city council take the steps required to make Waco a safer place for our families and for our children? Why won’t the council meet with and listen to the police officers who work the streets and put their lives on the line each and every day? What are they thinking? Maybe it’s time to replace the city council and the city manager with people who care about Waco!
By Just a Citizen
September 3, 2008 8:28 PM | Link to this
You make some good points Frank Strong, but I’m not sure we need a new council or city manager. Maybe we as citizens need to go to the council meeting and demand that they talk and listen to the officers. After all WE are the voters!! We are the people!!
By Arc
September 3, 2008 10:00 PM | Link to this
I dont care if the Association used good grammer or not. Shame on the paper people for even bringing it up! These words came from events in our community where my kids go to school, and I shop. If the Waco Trib had put them in small letters at the bottom of the page it would still scare me. How about the magazine who said Waco was the one of the worst places to raise your kids? Groth, Riggs, Bush, DuPuy, Austin, Flores you better step up and support these guys.
By Don
September 4, 2008 2:53 AM | Link to this
The WPA is right. The city council is deliberately avoiding the issue. Their funding of the WPD is about 100 officers short of the 27 they claim they are adding. A city this size and in the location it is between DFW and Austin needs about 400 officers to protect it’s citizens. Yes, the recent hits at Central Texas Marketplace are appalling to say the least. Don’t cite statistics to me when the streets are telling a different story. I think the WPD officers are a very good and dedicated group of people who are being ignored by the city. Waco is being listed as the worst of everything. Don’t make the WPD hit the worst list too.
If the voters are really concerned about police protection, then they should be filling up all those empty seats at every city council meeting and using the open forum the council has until the council and manager start listening.
By Allen
September 4, 2008 3:19 AM | Link to this
With only 15 Officers on shift at any given time, you cannot expect these hard working professionals to cover a city of this size and population. Waco needs more Officers, and the city just ignores them.