Akron, Ohio Lays-Off 96 Police Officers

             On Tuesday, September 15, 2009 96 police officers were laid-off from the Akron, Ohio police department. This coming after a recall with the mayor’s election. Is there some connection with the two? It’s not being shown, but the citizens are starting to draw their own conclusions.

            The city of Akron was already having a hard time responding to the numerous calls, whether life threatening or not. And now with 96 officers off of payroll, what will be the outcome of an already struggling city? Citizens have voiced numerous times that this should not be an option, as there are other ways and places to cut the budget. Meanwhile, through out our nation other states, including Ohio will be downsizing the state correctional facilities by releasing those not due to be released. This will definitely have a great impact on Akron.  There are several main correctional facilities in Ohio that aren’t far from Akron. The number of people that came from Akron that are in these facilities are propably greater than expected. 

          The women’s prison is in Marysville and is 2 hours and 19 minutes away.  The top three male facilities are just as close. Pickaway Correctional Institution is 2 hours and 26 minutes away. The Richland Correctional Facility is in in Mansfield, Ohio which is only an hour and six minutes away. And the Lorain Correctional Facility is only 55 minutes away. The hopes from the citizens of Akron, Ohio are only that this lay-off doesn’t put a bigger strain on their safety.

      Many home security companies will probably get more calls due to this. However, just 3 days prior to this horrific announcement a local home security company failed at trying to promote and inform the Akroniites. This local company is an authorized dealer for ADT and simply was out doing self promotions. They representatives were truly just trying to hand  out their business cards and flyers. No sales whatsoever. It would be interesting to know how many of those citizens are second guessing the rude shove off they gave those reps.

This company took the initiative to get the word out about the prisoner releases and give the community the information they need to keep themselves safe, and looked for nothing in return.

There’s a struggling community in Ohio that lost 96 officers, and several communities who feel they don’t need a security system. Do you see the imbalance?