Scope Volunteers Oppose Budget Cuts County Commissioners Asking Sheriff To Pare Down Department’s Budget By 3.5 Percent
Spokane Valley community policing volunteers are frustrated by their program’s position atop the Sheriff’s Department list of endangered programs.
Concerned about the message criminals are being sent by the county commissioners’ plan to trim the Sheriff’s Department’s 1996 budget, they have vowed to fight back.
Volunteers are circulating petitions and asking other Valley residents to join the fight by speaking out against the cuts, which includes funding for SCOPE (Sheriff’s Community Oriented-Policing Effort).
In the Valley, four SCOPE groups operate three neighborhood substations. SCOPE also supports such anti-crime programs as Block Watch and McGruff homes, and SCOPE volunteers take part in such activities as photographing gang graffiti, taking fingerprints from car burglaries, and patrolling neighborhoods.
The Sheriff’s Department traffic unit, which shares the SCOPE East Valley and West Valley substation at 9411 E. Trent, is also threatened by the budget crunch.
“We’ve just gotten used to the greater presence of the Sheriff’s Department out here,” said Bill Langdon, president of SCOPE West Valley.
County commissioners have asked Sheriff John Goldman to trim his department’s budget by 3.5 percent.
Langdon said he is troubled that commissioners who campaign tough on crime would ask Goldman to cut his budget.
“When it comes time to put up the money, you don’t get it,” Langdon said.
The Sheriff’s Department is asking commissioners to OK a budget allowing for $60,800 worth of community service programs in 1996. SCOPE, a part-time SCOPE staff position, the programs SCOPE supports and a crime prevention deputy would be among costs covered by the money.
“To make our community safer, we need those programs,” said Barb Smith of SCOPE University.
Signatures are being gathered on the petitions by all of the Valley groups. Volunteers from each group have also taken them to Valley businesses and schools.
Volunteers are also asking Valley residents to show their concern at the Dec. 4 county commissioners meeting. SCOPE officials will be presenting the petitions to the commissioners. The meeting starts at 1:30 p.m. in the Public Works Building, 1026 W. Broadway.
“We’re hoping the community hears our cry for help,” Smith said.
SCOPE has nearly 700 active block watch teams in the Valley. The neighborhood watch groups hold monthly meetings and check on neighbors’ houses when they are not home.
McGruff houses have also been set up through the SCOPE program. These neighborhood houses offer children a safe place to wait for their parents when they are scared or locked out of their home, Smith said.
Volunteers in SCOPE’s fingerprinting program have responded to 99 reports of car burglaries over the last month, said Smith, who coordinates the program. She estimated they have handled over 250 since the program started Aug. 16.
“If we’re not out there doing this, it’s never going to get done,” Smith said.
SCOPE volunteers said that even if funding is cut for the program, they will not give up. They plan to ask for business sponsorship, but worry that other community groups doing the same will make money short.
“We’ll run it out of our houses if we have to,” Smith said.
, DataTimes