community policing: idea and reality

From today’s Chron:

"We as a city aren't doing enough,'' Mirkarimi said. "We don't have a definition of what community policing is in San Francisco, nothing in the code -- if there is nothing in the code, nobody is going to be held accountable.''
Part of the delay in getting a plan in place stems from the Police Department's staffing shortages. The department has just 57 beats dedicated to foot and bicycle patrols. Overall, however, the department is 264 officers short of the 1,971-officer minimum set by voters, and there are 59 vacancies in the inspectors bureau.
"You can't effectively do community policing when you're 300 officers short,'' said Gary Delagnes, president of the Police Officers Association, "because the Police Department's No. 1 responsibility is to respond to calls for service.''
….Mirkarimi, however, said a lack of resources should not derail structural change. "We can get creative about staffing, moving officers from the airport or moving officers in from other stations," he said, "where they are not suffering like other hot pockets in the city.''

I used to ask folks what they meant by ‘community policing’… and it seems the basic answer is ‘more cops on foot and/or bike’… which I’m fine with, but if that’s the case, then it’s simply a budgetary issue, right?

While people talk about lack of ‘answers’ from leadership in City Hall, it seems the answer is already there: fix or increase the police budget so they can hire more officers. Can you believe we’re currently operating 300 below a *voter mandated* minimum? Shouldn’t that be illegal?

Tys