'You can't put a price on safety'. We've heard that statement many, many times. To some extent it's true, in other times it's not.
We applaud the Town of Flomaton and the Escambia County School Board working out an agreement where the town will pay to have an additional resource officer on the Flomaton schools' campus for the remainder of this school year. Whether or not that resource officer will be on campus next year is still in negotiations.
When you get right down to it, there is a price put on safety. The problem comes with how much money are the taxpayers willing to pay for that safety. My bet is Flomaton would be safer if we hired 10 additional officers; the county would be safer if we hired another 50 deputies. Add personnel to the sheriff's offices in Escambia County, Fla., and Santa Rosa County, Fla., along with additional officers in Atmore, Brewton, East Brewton and beyond and we'd be safer.
Build new prisons and hire another 500 correctional officers to quit this revolving door of criminals going in and out and we'd all be safer.
Allocate millions of tax dollars to put some teeth in the juvenile justice system and we know we would all be safer.
The point is, there is a price on safety. The question is what price do we want to pay. We don't see people standing in line to beg their town councils or county commissions to double or triple taxes to pay for this added safety.
We, as voters, control how much of our money we want to go toward safety. The sad part is less than 50 percent of us vote and the others complain.
Reach out to your elected officials and tell them how you think and how you would likely vote. That's where the rubber meets the road.
