EVERS RESPONDS TO POLICE CHIEF

In Tuesday's Herald (page 1C), residents of east Bradenton (at an
Imagine Manatee visioning session) say their community's biggest
problem is drugs and crimes spawned by drugs. On page 8C, the
Bradenton police chief goes to great lengths to try to justify the
lack of a drug unit.

Doesn't that speak volumes?

The people say "Big problem." The big-city chief from D.C. says
Bradenton isn't big enough to have a drug unit. Who is right on this
one?

On Tuesday it was the people of the eastern part of the city who were
voicing their concerns. But, drugs are a problem either directly or
indirectly in all parts of our city. Maybe you don't have a pusher
standing on the corner outside your house, but I bet you know of
someone whose house has been burglarized, whose store has been robbed
or who has been held up by someone trying to get money to buy drugs.

Come January, if I'm elected, we will have a specialized unit to fight
not only drugs, but also prostitution and gangs, just like we used to
have.

Do you know that narcotics arrests are down 495 and prostitution
arrests are down 70 percent? That doesn't take into consideration
drug-related spinoff crimes like burglaries, robberies and assaults.

Maybe if the police chief lived in Bradenton instead of south Sarasota
County, he might have a clearer understanding of the negative impact
drugs have on our city and be more receptive to targeting the problem.

As for his "warning" not to politicize the police department, he needs
to take his own advice and not get in the middle. Also, he needs to
avoid calling any more mandatory "pep rallies" where the officers are
urged to get behind and support the current mayor.

In his letter, the chief wonders where I would get officers to staff a
drug unit; he already has seven more officers than I had, and I had
enough to staff a drug unit. Also, I would immediately disband the
unit he and the mayor call "Safe Streets," where our highly-trained
professional police officers do menial tasks like picking up debris
and painting buildings in the vicinity of the Village of the Arts.

In the months ahead I'm going to be doing a lot of talking about
problems at the Bradenton Police Department, such as low morale and
high turnover.

If you want to know more about the Bradenton Police Department and
other issues in our city, log on to www.billevers.com and revisit the
site often over the summer. We'll be explaining our platform of
"Restore the Vision."

BILL EVERS

candidate for mayor of Bradenton