Last week The Times reported our sheriff department received 262 calls for service during the week of April 11-17. An average of 35-40 calls per day in addition to traffic control, speed enforcement, school security and the normal paperwork requirements for our 1.5 or so daily patrol officers who also have Maricopa County responsibilities.

Is our town under-served for public safety? With indications of concurrent increasing crime activity, it would appear that may well be the case and that Councilmen Spelich and Tolis’ calls for investigation into development of our own police department may be in order.

The first requirement for consideration of such a momentous responsibility, however, would be how to pay for it. Any plan to take on the responsibility of the facility and equipment requirements, daily and long-term operational and manpower expense that does not include a fixed and dependable income source to fund it could and very well would be disastrous for a town of our size.

To keep the proverbial horse before the cart, the only fixed, dependable and equitable source of funding public safety available to our town is a property tax established for that purpose. The discussion needs to start with a commitment to the funding and then move forward from there.