CRIME PREVENTION: BUDGETS SPEAK

At its most basic level, a budget is a statement of
priorities.

On that basis, Jacksonville doesn't think much of crime
prevention.

For most of its history, Jacksonville has dealt with crime almost
entirely as a law enforcement issue.

Crime prevention has been addressed through small, struggling
nonprofit agencies, begging for funds that consistently get cut.

Exhibit A is Drug Court, a proven success that recently was targeted
for closure due to cuts in local court operations.

Yet, as Duval County has mobilized to address its state-leading murder
rate, it has become apparent to many community leaders that arrests
cannot solve the root causes of crime.

These realizations are part of the most important community discussion
since consolidation in 1968. That's the opinion of the Jacksonville
Journey project by Michael Hallett, criminal justice chairman at the
University of North Florida.

During a recent discussion at the offices of Jacksonville Community
Council Inc., Hallett expressed concerns that the Journey would not
succeed.

From the right wing, it will be attacked for its cost, starting at
over $30 million and moving to about $60 million in five years.

From the left, it will be attacked because the 140 members did not
include enough representatives from the inner-city community being
discussed, areas rife with poverty, social ills and crime.

At the same time, Hallett, a member of the Journey panel, supports the
effort.

He is right. The Journey deserves support because it finally gives
crime prevention a fraction of the support that it deserves. Inclusion
can be solved in the implementation phase of the project.

As for the cost, no matter what financial pressures the city of
Jacksonville is undergoing, law enforcement must remain the No. 1
priority. And crime prevention must be 1-A.

The $36 million initially proposed for the first year of the Journey
represents about 10 percent of the Sheriff's Office budget - and part
of that is law enforcement.

New taxes are not the best place or the only place to fund crime
prevention. This page has long insisted that the sheriff's budget has
areas that could be mined for savings.

And if other savings are discovered in the city budget, they should be
devoted to crime prevention.

It's time that this community quit expecting law enforcement to do a
job that it is not best suited to do - prevent crime.

The budget should reflect that.