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ERIC LADLEY Times Leader Staff Writer
Wednesday, February 09, 2000 Page: 1A
WILKES-BARRE – Last week, Mayor Tom McGroarty proposed a budget that would
leave six police openings vacant – cutting the force from 84 to 78.
On Tuesday, he reversed that decision. Now, the mayor says he’ll fill five
of those vacancies by summer, bringing the force to 83.
McGroarty’s announcement came at his annual address on the city’s Uniformed
Crime Report.
McGroarty said the city is safer, but statistics show that overall offenses
jumped from 3,534 to 3,656 in 1999, and eight of 14 categories showed
increases.
The mayor was evasive when asked why he changed his mind and decided to
hire more police officers. “ The reason I’m putting more cops on is that they
do a good job,” McGroarty said at the press conference.
Later he said he reversed his decision after he received a letter “earlier
this week” stating the police union dropped a complaint opposing McGroarty’s
plan to replace cops who ticket cars with civilian meter maids.
“You can catch more with sugar than you can with spice,” he said.
He said the new officers would be part of a strategy to crack down on
drugs, disorderliness and drinking. Arrests for “nuisance crimes or quality
of life,” such as drugs and drinking offenses, jumped from 1,851 to 2,035
during the past year. And the recovery and arrest rate in motor vehicle crimes
climbed from 50 percent to 98 percent, he said,
The mayor said those arrests help deter more violent activities such as
rape and burglary. City statistics show rapes declined from 24 to 14, and
burglaries from 339 to 281.
McGroarty was especially proud of the reduction in burglaries. “It’s a
credit to police, and a credit to our crime watch,” McGroarty said. “Last
year, we saw rapes and burglaries were up. We said we were going to try and do
something about it, and we did.”
A city chart showing burglaries by neighborhood included 240 burglaries.
McGroarty could not be reached for comment Monday night to explain the
discrepancy.
Crimes that increased included robberies, 101 to 116; motor vehicle thefts,
163 to 199; and vandalism, 1,162 to 1,308.
To combat robberies, McGroarty said he plans to station more police cars in
front of convenience stores.
City Controller Bernard Mengeringhausen said he did not know until Tuesday
about McGroarty’s plan to hire more officers, but believes there is room in
the budget to do it. It would cost about $90,000 per officer, he said.
Mengeringhausen said the city could pay for the extra police by using money
saved by privatizing its recycling and garbage collection. He said privatizing
would save the city $1.3 million.
City Council has discussed privatizing, but has not made a decision.
McGroarty said he is looking forward to increasingly improving relations
with the union and reducing crime in the coming year.
He believes the union will be more cordial now that his nemesis, Ed Soltis,
has retired as president. Soltis ran against McGroarty in last year’s
Democratic primary.
The mayor added that the city is preparing to put out bids to hire a
civilian meter maid.
City Patrolmen’s Benevolent Association President Robert Hughes said he is
happy about the additional hires, but stressed that the meter maid matter is
not yet settled.
The union did agree to drop the proceedings against the city in order to
negotiate, but Hughes said he would oppose any effort to simply change the
ticketing positions to civilians without talking to union officials first.
Hughes said the union dismissed the suit, but still could reopen the
matter. No specific officers are assigned to ticket cars, he said. Street cops
do the job as it is needed.
Call Ladley at 829-7122.