28 American Police Beat: January 2018 ★ ★ cept of community po- licing there’s great news everywhere you look. Not only is the COPS Office at DOJ getting a rather extreme makeover, local community policing programs and facilities are in danger as well. Take Newark, New Jer- sey, for instance. The Newark PD just recently closed its com- munity policing center. The truth is that stuff like this costs money and we’ve decided that com- munity policing just isn’t all that important. “We just didn’t have the money in the budget to continue,” Newark PD spokesman Sgt. Gerald Bryda told reporters with the Newark Post. The community polic- ing center itself really never had a chance to get started. It just opened last spring. Basically it was just a cheap office with a big conference table where cops and community members could sit down, have a coffee and talk. Modeled after a sim- ilar concept in Mystic, Conn., the center con- tained a large conference table for meetings, and the walls were decorated with photos and memo- rabilia from throughout the Department’s history. Containers near the door held coloring books, cray- ons and stickers for young visitors, and blue lights in the window signaled when the facility was open. T h e i d e a i s n ’ t rocket science. “We’re trying to make the police approachable,” Lt. Dennis Aniunas, who pitched the idea to police leadership and city council. “I think the problem with society today is peo- ple look at this uniform and they make a judgment for better or for worse.” Local businessman George Danneman, who owns the building where the center was just closed, allowed the police de- partment to use the space rent-free as part of a pilot program. But with all the budget cuts and layoffs (if you’re a cop in Newark this is basically a permanent state of affairs) the powers that be have decided that a place where cops and the community could get together informally just wasn’t a priority. Newark PD spokesman Sgt. Gerald Bryda says who knows – maybe when things turn around finan- cially they’ll try again. “Anything we can do to foster that great relation- ship with the community we will do,” he said. Hey, here’s an idea. How about a community policing center where... oh yeah. Forget it. Are we looking at the end of community policing? Continued from page one by Brianna Dunn An initiative whose sponsors sought to out- law safe-injection sites has been struck down by a judge in King County. According to an article in the Seattle Times, Supe- rior Court Judge Veron- ica Alicea-Galván ruled that letting voters decide whether to ban safe-injec- tion sites would infringe on the power of the King County Board of Health. If the ruling is upheld it will be taken off the February special election ballot. This would be a victory for advocates who want drug users to have a safe place to inject. The supporters of the initiative, known as I-27, were greatly disappointed. “ I ’ m c o m p l e t e l y shocked about this rul- ing,” said State Sen. Mark Miloscia, who represents Federal Way and Auburn. “To say this drug epi- demic is a public-health crisis and therefore it’s immune from the public having a say in it is com- pletely unprecedented and wrong.” The concept of safe injection sites has been controversial from the beginning, but support- ers say they protect the health and safety of the public. A task force that was put together last year, con- ducted research showing that medical supervision reduced overdoses and in- fections from HIV/AIDS and Hepatitis C. The opioid task force recommended one site in Seattle and one in an u n d e t e r m i n e d K i n g County location. “We don’t think pub- lic initiatives ought to overrule policies and rec- ommendations that have been made through the appropriate processes,” said Dr. Bob Wood, the former director of the HIV/AIDS Program at Public Health-Seattle & King County. “We’re hap- py that the judge ruled in our favor.” More people die of opioid and heroin over- doses each year in Wash- ington than car crashes. The Centers for Disease Control says the drug overdose problem is an epidemic and President Donald Trump declared opioid addiction a nation- al emergency. Brianna Dunn is a special correspondent for American Police Beat. Safe injection sites? Idea is controversial Opponents dismayed by judge’s ruling Detroit Police Mounted Section officers were the crowd favorites of America’s Thanksgiving Parade this fall. The DPD Honor Guard lead the parade followed by the Mounted Officers, as is traditional. Photo credit: David Malhalab