Smithfield, North Carolina Police May Ignore '911' Calls If Not Provided More Gas Money

In one North Carolina town, some residents may not get an answer to their 911 calls because the police are running out of gas money.

In a town council meeting Tuesday night, Smithfield, North Carolina Police Chief Michael Scott will ask officials to let him use $30,000 meant for office supplies to buy gas for patrol cars, the Raleigh News and Observer reports. If he doesn't get the money, Smith said the police force may stop responding to some 911 calls and investigating misdemeanors because he's already cut patrols.

Smithfield isn't the only town looking for ways to cut costs to contend with budget woes. High unemployment and a struggling housing market have pushed more than half of U.S. cities to cut staff, boost fees or cancel infrastructure projects, according to the National League of Cities. The situation has gotten so dire that deep state and local budget cuts may be slowing U.S. economic growth, according to The Associated Press.

City officials in Allen Park, Michigan, a suburb of Detroit, announced Tuesday that they would lay off more than 30 police officers, firefighters and city workers, the Detroit Free Press reports. In Santa Ana, California a budget analysis found that the city may need to take steps including closing some fire stations at night to close a projected $30 million budget gap, according to Voice of OC.

Some localities are looking for other creative ways to trim budgets. Nearly 300 school districts are moving to a four-day week, the Washington Post reports. In Grand Rapids, Flint and Lansing, Michigan city officials will use a $550,000 award from the state's governor to buy a machine to process income tax returns, which will cut down on the cities' manpower needs, according to the Grand Rapids NBC affiliate.

One county is taking what some might argue is a more extreme approach to deficit reduction. Officials in Camden County, Georgia floated hiring prison inmates as firefighters last month to curb costs.

In Smithfield, town council members say there's no way the police will be forced to stop performing necessary services, even in tight economic times.

"I think we need to uncover every rock and every stone to see other areas where we could save some money," Councilman Perry Harris told the News and Observer.

Comments

[realguyinfl]

09:07 AM on 11/06/2011

RON PAUL IN 2012!!!

[Mamadea]

02:42 AM on 11/04/2011

The republicans have taken over the legislature for the first time in over a century ever since chocolate was given the keys to the White House.

They are trying to ram through treasonous bills but thank God Dem Governor Bev Perdue has the veto pen!!!

VOTE REPUBLICANS OUT!

[karmen126]

06:56 AM on 11/06/2011

...what?

[caorel]

11:08 PM on 11/03/2011

I can't believe where they're cutting costs. I worked for Orange County, CA ten years ago, and even then they had more employees than they had work to do. I would finish my work, then go and do the work of two or three other employees, because my father was an immigrant entrepreneur and I was taught to earn my living. 90% of the other employees were lazy free-loaders being paid by my father's taxes, the money he earned by hard, hard physical labor. Cut the fire and police department budgets? Morons! Cut some of the clerical staff who don't do anything all day but collect benefits and a fat paycheck!

[Carol Tolhurst]

08:02 PM on 11/03/2011

And the rich get richer. Don't worry folks it's just a bit of fear mongering from the media. Boo hoo so this place has a revenue crisis............join the club....would that we all should complain. The internet would be so flooded it would probably bring it down. They'll get the money. Don't get your knickers in a twist. Fear mongering always sells

[Djay0252]

12:16 PM on 11/03/2011

It always filters down from top to bottom never bottom to top. The people can only take so much while they continue to be seduced with how the 1% are living and what companies tell us we can't live without.

[KeyopsBack]

06:34 AM on 11/03/2011

Let's just lay off a bunch of these thugs and then the remaining crew will have gas money. How's that?

[ThinkTwiceWriteOnce]

04:38 AM on 11/03/2011

Time to start growing bananas and call it a republic!

[Tim Daniels]

02:05 AM on 11/03/2011

They would probably have more money if they weren't chasing down people for a 10 dollar bag of pot which cost a lot less than a tank of gas.

[hey- einstein]

10:00 PM on 11/02/2011

I bet illegal drug raids on the wrong house, or arresting the drunk on a lawn mower in a one hour real slow chase is cut back. Put a bicycle under their lazy butt.

[aqua0]

09:25 PM on 11/02/2011

Cops do the dirty work that politicians and the rest of us won't do. As long as they do not abuse their authority, I respect them. Somebody's got to do the policing and be called the bad guy. At the end, when you're in trouble, you call the cops. Even Occupy Locations have their own security.

[Razpooten]

10:43 PM on 11/03/2011

What policing? they always show up after the fact, and late. When have you known a cop to stop a crime in progress? If they get a call about a guy threatening to shoot himself, they show up and shoot him.

[Nowhear this]

08:45 PM on 11/02/2011

You mean then they should stop chasing mothers in minivans for speeding tickets and go after drugdealers and emergency calls. Wow what a concept !

[Unregistered1]

10:33 PM on 11/02/2011

If they didn't collect the revenue from speeders, they would have gone broke sooner.

[Razpooten]

10:43 PM on 11/03/2011

That would be dreadful!

[KeyopsBack]

07:56 PM on 11/02/2011

Tell the cops your car got stolen and you see a marijuana plant, they won't ignore the call and will descend on the scene with 50 hummers and dogs.

[jdixi]

07:56 PM on 11/02/2011

Of course, the solution is to cut more funding in order to support tax cuts for the rich and corporate subsidies. That'll fix it.

[KeepLeft]

07:17 PM on 11/02/2011

Horses

[sheila3fan]

07:16 PM on 11/02/2011

One bad apple doesn't make the whole dept, corruptred. Lets look at the assemblypeople/congresspeople, who don't show up to work but still get large paychecks, and also why can't they drive cars from the state carpools, after they are only stateworers, save all states a lot of money!