Police chief orders more tickets for revenue
by Michael Graham
DNN Staff - EXCLUSIVE!
Tuesday, Feb. 17, 2009
If you missed President Obama’s presser last week, don’t worry. Everything you need to know about the “stimulus” plan, you can learn from a police chief in Malden.
DNN recently uncovered Police Chief Kenneth Coye’s economic recovery plan for the Malden town coffers:
“We need to increase enforcement in areas that create revenue. . . Write ‘ONE TAG A DAY,” Coye wrote in one memo to his officers. In another, he was even more direct:
“In these difficult times it’s vital that we max on (sic) revenue potential,” reads the memo. “Any ideas that you have to increase revenue is (sic) welcome. . . Please write ‘one a day.’ ”
The phrase “in these difficult times” is key. Yes, times are tough, in Malden and elsewhere.Some Malden taxpayers might even appreciate a break right about now - maybe a cop letting an expired meter slide for a change, or looking the other way at a citizen’s slow roll through a stop sign.
But Coye isn’t worried about tough times for taxpayers. No, he sees cuts coming to his budget and thinks “It’s a fiscal crisis! Quick-ticket every Beemer in town!”
It’s easy to dismiss Coye’s memos as mere quota-mongering for his cops. But ticket quotas for cops are commonplace, despite the denials from law enforcement.
This is actually a learning experience. If the taxpayers of Malden thought that the job of their local police was “to protect and serve,” now they know it’s really “to collect and conserve” - their own paychecks.
The Malden police chief has done a brilliant job of seizing the spirit of the Democrats’ economic stimulus plan. We hear “police” and we think “fight crime,” not “maximize revenue.”
We hear “stimulus package” and we think “create private sector jobs,” not “massive government spending.” Both assume that the fundamental problem is money - you’ve got it, and the government needs it.
What is the fundamental premise of the Obama plan? It’s that we need to take $1 trillion from taxpayers - or more accurately, since we’re borrowing every penny, from our children - and give it to the government. Just like Chief Coye, Obama’s complaint isn’t “not enough money.” It’s not enough government money.
That’s why Obama rejects meaningful tax cuts for businesses, and cutting taxes on capital gains for investors. He’s ignoring the job growth potential of small businesses and entrepreneurs, instead preferring to rely on the brute economic force of STD research and the National Endowment for the Arts.
Obama has spoken at length about how overseers and Internet watchdogs will ensure that this $1 trillion “will be spent the right way.” But that presumes that he, or anyone else in government, knows what the right way is. He assumes that the 100 bucks in your pocket today would be better spent by the Obama administration tomorrow.
I doubt if most Americans would agree - including those Obama supporters like Tim Geithner and Tom Daschle who until recently worked so hard to keep their own cash out of government hands. As National Review’s Mark Steyn wrote, “Who knows better than a senator who’s voted for every tax increase to cross his desk that all this dough is entirely wasted?”
On NBC this weekend, Rep. Barney Frank bragged that the “stimulus” bill would dump billions on state and local governments to pay for things like firefighters and cops. That includes, one assumes, Malden cops, who would in turn hit the streets looking to max their revenue. It’s the liberal circle of life.
I think I’ve got the perfect compromise: Let’s pay police officers to collect the back taxes of Obama’s nominees. We’ll have the budget balanced in no time!
Greed: Malden Police Chief Kenneth Coye
(above) recently sent out a memo, ordering
each policeman to issue one ticket per day
for revenue purposes. (DNN Staff photo)
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