PUBLIC SAFETY IS THE ROOT OF THE PROBLEM? Your information is incorrect about police pay raises, and needs to be corrected. Dearborn PD rank and file received a 10% pay raise over 6 years, which ends in June 2012. It was negotiated before the downturn in the economy. The “raises” were: 07-01-2006 2%, 07-01-2007 2%, 07-01-2008 zero increase, 07-01-2009 2%, 07-01-2010 1%, and 07-01-2011 3 %. This brings the top pay for a police officer to $67,030 per year after July 2011. Current negotiations show that they will be giving back some monies from previous raises and are expected to pay 20% of their healthcare, along with potentially other givebacks. And yes, police/fire make up a significant amount of the budget, and both police and fire have minimum staffing levels granted under City Charter. Police should be staffed (per charter) at 2.1 officers per 100,000 population, and should be currently staffed at 205 officers. They have not been anywhere near staffed at that amount for at least 8-10 years, they currently are just over 180 officers. they will have even less officers with retirements and the City slow to hire due to the economy, even though the Charter mandates the staffing. The fire department is mandated at 121 firefighters, which they always seem to nearly maintain.
Police and fire should always be maintained at high levels above all other City employees, look at what is happening to other communities like Pontiac, Detroit, Allen Park, Troy, etc. Inkster and Taylor Police Departments are severely depleated as are many others. Do you really want to lay off officers here when they are already under-staffed? We are surrounded on two sides by Detroit, and much of our crime is committed by those outside the City. DEARBORN RESIDENTS ARE VERY FORTUNATE TO HAVE AS MANY OFFICERS AS THEY CURRENTLY HAVE, LET ALONE QUALITY OFFICERS.
As far as having City police/fire and employees living in the City; it has been over twenty years since the courts ruled this as unconstitutional, employees can live outside the cities they work for as long as they can respond when called, and that is left up to contract language in agreements with the City. I live in the City and am a retired officer. I believe that officers should be encouraged to live within the City, but it is no longer practical to do so for a myriad of reasons. I understand why many officers don’t live in the City where they work. It is not just Dearborn, it is everywhere in the country. The job is hard enough let alone having to also live next door to all of the whining, sniveling malcontents that won’t bat an eye when spitting in your face. Is it fair to ask a Ford employee at World Headquarters to live in Dearborn and not elsewhere? Where do you work, do you have to live in the City where you work?

PS: The Police Chief currently lives in Dearborn, although it took awhile for him to do so.