McElfresh letter: Is public safety a priority in Newark?

If you attend Newark City Council meetings, you'll hear from numerous elected and appointed officials how important public safety is. Numerous times you'll hear that public safety is the number one responsibility of Government. It's a good talking point, of course who would be against public safety? But, what is the reality of public safety in Newark?

At a recent council meeting, Newark Police Chief Sarver commented that the police department has dropped from 81 police officers to 69 police officers. Only one or two council people questioned why. The Newark Fire Department has seen its staffing levels reduced as well, from 85 fire fighters in 2010 to currently having 72. It should be noted that this number is less than were employed prior to 2001 when the citizens passed a Safety levy. It is nearly the same amount of fire fighters as 26 years ago.

Newark Fire Fighters IAFF Local 109 has worked to protect the citizens and neighborhoods of Newark through agreements with the city to provide enough fire fighters on duty every day. In 2010, the Newark Fire Department had a contractual minimum staffing of 19 fire fighter/paramedics per day which staffed all four of Newark's fire stations. This was with what was considered to be "less than adequate" staffing by national standards, but did at least maintain an assured or set number of fire trucks and medic trucks would be in service. That was then, where are we today?

Currently, there is no contractual minimum staffing in the Fire Department, but why does that matter? Because having an appropriate number of fire fighters responding to an emergency helps make us more efficient and keeps you safe. Just like any team effort, fewer fire fighters make the team less effective and can result in increased property damage in the event of a fire or even an increased loss of life.

It takes a minimum number of personnel to staff a Fire truck or medic truck. The simple math is that when you cut fire fighters, you have to cut fire trucks. Due to cuts in staffing, the fire engine in the east end is out of service a majority of the time. The busiest medic in the city Medic 1 has been taken out of service due to these staffing cuts. In response, starting on January 1, 2015 and on a trial basis to try to fill the void in the downtown district, the city has reopened Medic 1 only to eliminate Medic 2 which served the North end of town, leaving the North end with only a Fire/Ladder truck but no Medic truck.

In reality, many of those who read this will dismiss these words…until they have an emergency and are forced to wait for help due to these service cuts. We say that "in an emergency, minutes matter." Truth be told, when it's your emergency, seconds matter. How many more seconds and minutes will you need to wait after calling 911 for fire fighters to arrive to your emergency due to these staffing cuts?

My hope is that the general public does care about their safety, and does support their safety forces, but just may not realize there is a problem. Emergency calls are increasing, and as recent weeks have shown, Newark still has fires. Unfortunately the resources that matter, the men and women needed to provide those important services, have continually been cut.

The question remains, is public safety a priority in Newark? Guess it depends on who you ask.

David McElfresh

Newark Resident

IAFF Local 109 President