Ayatollahgondola
05-19-2010, 10:11 PM
I attended the second of two meetings held by the Sacramento sheriff's department this evening, and I don't mind telling you that I'm beyond concerned that we are soon to be the badlands of the north.
Sac county is experiencing a collapsing revenue stream, and little salvation on the horizon. They passed out a paper they wanted everyone to fill out and state their preferential "cuts" choice. Either the sheriff brings the patrols to a near halt, releases most of the inmates from the jail, or half of each. there is always a hopeful grant from the feds, but there's enormous competition from all over the state for those funds.
During the course of this event, a tape was played from a media source who was doing interviews at the jail, and they interviewed one of the inmates who had won early release to save money, and the guy basically said the the inmates still inside were jumping for joy at the prospect that the cops were cutting back and were planning to commit more crimes openly. (I don't think this was staged)
The sheriff was questioned by many of us, and did respond candidly. One subject that came up was in regards to the state prisoners being released early, to which he replied by saying that as bad as Sacramento county is suffering financially, the state is worse, and he used the word insolvent in describing the state, and said they still haven't come to terms with it.
He also mentioned that Sacramento seems to be at the forefront of this, and that many other municipalities are soon to be in the same straits.
The sheriff was drilled on the gun permit and related gun issues, and said they have increased their issuance of gun permits. (it doesn't take many to be a marked increase from nearly nothing though)
All in all it was a pretty troubling meeting. We're not going to have coverage up here, and the likelyhood is that many of us are going to go wanting for support. I wasn't aware of this, but the sheriff's helicopter was grounded a while back because it's expensive to run, and the SWAT team is not a static unit anymore. after he said that I remembered I hadn't heard the whirlybird hovering over our house for quite some time like it used to, and thought crime was down in our area...silly me.
The future is also pretty bleak, as the many forclosures up here have hurt the property tax income, and sales taxes are likewise considerably less, so there's no real turnaround yet.
I did ask about the ICE housing for prisoners and they did authenticate that the sheriff's jail is being paid about 100.00 per head per day to house illegals until they were either deported, released, or transferred. also that Sacramento main jail is being used by ICE to hold prisoners from other areas.
Sac county is experiencing a collapsing revenue stream, and little salvation on the horizon. They passed out a paper they wanted everyone to fill out and state their preferential "cuts" choice. Either the sheriff brings the patrols to a near halt, releases most of the inmates from the jail, or half of each. there is always a hopeful grant from the feds, but there's enormous competition from all over the state for those funds.
During the course of this event, a tape was played from a media source who was doing interviews at the jail, and they interviewed one of the inmates who had won early release to save money, and the guy basically said the the inmates still inside were jumping for joy at the prospect that the cops were cutting back and were planning to commit more crimes openly. (I don't think this was staged)
The sheriff was questioned by many of us, and did respond candidly. One subject that came up was in regards to the state prisoners being released early, to which he replied by saying that as bad as Sacramento county is suffering financially, the state is worse, and he used the word insolvent in describing the state, and said they still haven't come to terms with it.
He also mentioned that Sacramento seems to be at the forefront of this, and that many other municipalities are soon to be in the same straits.
The sheriff was drilled on the gun permit and related gun issues, and said they have increased their issuance of gun permits. (it doesn't take many to be a marked increase from nearly nothing though)
All in all it was a pretty troubling meeting. We're not going to have coverage up here, and the likelyhood is that many of us are going to go wanting for support. I wasn't aware of this, but the sheriff's helicopter was grounded a while back because it's expensive to run, and the SWAT team is not a static unit anymore. after he said that I remembered I hadn't heard the whirlybird hovering over our house for quite some time like it used to, and thought crime was down in our area...silly me.
The future is also pretty bleak, as the many forclosures up here have hurt the property tax income, and sales taxes are likewise considerably less, so there's no real turnaround yet.
I did ask about the ICE housing for prisoners and they did authenticate that the sheriff's jail is being paid about 100.00 per head per day to house illegals until they were either deported, released, or transferred. also that Sacramento main jail is being used by ICE to hold prisoners from other areas.