Rockford is a town that loves to talk in sound bites; maybe it’s because we have such open access to the media, unlike in a major market like Chicago where you can only hope to have a story or issue covered by a news team. Regardless, many of us have become pretty handy with making sure we assist our reporters by talking about an issue in sound bite form – gotta make it easy for the editing process so your message makes it through!
Sometimes though, your sound bites can collide down the road. I’ve found it interesting to watch the collision surrounding the crime problem Rockford has been experiencing. First, public officials talk succinctly about the need to eliminate officers in the Rockford Police Department for budgetary reasons; then we experience an increase in crime and the sound bites flip to the need for better police coverage and how many less officers we have on the streets now versus ten years ago. You can’t expect at least 100 fewer cops to do the same work in a larger territory.
Next, we hear the sound bites about overcrowding in the jail and the need to move prisoners through the system in a more timely fashion. This sound bite runs parallel with the ‘we are experiencing too much of a backlog in prosecuting criminals’. This last one is ridiculous when it is thrown out there and officials aren’t willing to throw some money at the States Attorneys office for more prosecutors or to the courts for more judges to hear the cases.
Then, you have an incident like the Marie’s robbery where three of the robbers have recent criminal records or in other cases are out on bail from their last foray through the justice system. The sound bite then changes to ‘why are these guys back on the streets? Why aren’t they in jail where they belong? We’re going to find out what happened here and make the community safe!’ It doesn’t take a rocket scientist to figure out what happened here.
We can’t expect a different scenario than what we’re experiencing now if we continue to shrink our police force, release criminals from jail on little to no bond just to relieve the crowding problem in the jail, shuttle the offenders through court in a hurried process and throw them back on the streets with very little rehabilitation to stem the recidivism.
The sound bites have collided and when taken all together seem silly, in my opinion, of course.
Excellent article. Excellent. There are a lot of people of power and persuasion in Rockford who should be very embarrassed about where they are leading your community.
Unfortunately, it doesn’t effect many of them, as many of the area’s leaders have moved out of Rockford to what are considered to be “safer” outlying areas, so, it really doesn’t effect many of them.
I have to hand it to your Mayor. At least he lives in downtown Rockford. He, at least, walks the walk to back his talk.
Maybe we could have more police if more than 30 percent of them lived in Rockford and contributed property taxes to the city that pays their salaries. Rockford needs more property taxpayers if it is to maintain its public services.
Chuck – on one hand I agree with you that it would certainly help our tax base if Rockford cops and firemen lived in the city that pays them; it would go far in maintaining our public safety and infrastructure.
On the other hand, and this is where my Mom hat gets put on, I can’t blame them for wanting to give their kids the best opportunity for a high quality education, and many Rockford residents don’t feel they can get that in Rockford, public servants included. They aren’t unlike anyone else with kids who feels the better option for their families is living in the surrounding communities.
I am not particularly interested in criticism of Rockford from people who do not live or pay taxes here.
Sorry, Chuck, but even those who don’t live here, still pay some taxes here. We buy food, clothes, and gasoline here. We go to shows at the Coronado and BMO center, patronize restaurants and bars, and numerous other businesses. And finally, our taxes support both the County and Federal courthouses, which bring more people to Rockford. If you want to wall off the City, and become a self-sufficient fiefdom, go right ahead. But I’d be willing to bet that the rest of us will get on better without you, than you will without us.
Most of our municipal taxes are property taxes. More than two-thirds of our police and firefighters live outside the city, so they don’t really have a substantial stake in the community that pays them. Firefighters say we need to have four men on a truck for our safety, yet most of them live in areas protected by volunteers. The average income of a typical Rockfordian is a lot lower than that of the average cop or firefighter. They want raises but most of us have not had raises in 3 years. For the situation to reverse itself, Rockford needs to have more middle class taxpayers.
SNUSS, you can stay out of the city if you want, shop out on 173 or Cherryvale, live in Roscoe or Winn-Du-Pec, on Telegraph Road or in the Twin Cities of Shirland/ Harrison. We can all do whatever we like — and whatever we can afford. But your premise is incorrect. For as Rockford goes, so goes the region.