A little more than three years ago, the Baltimore Police Department's Marine Unit was an indispensable crime-fighting tool. The city had spent $143,000 on a state-of-the-art 27-foot SeaArk craft packed with the latest radar, sonar and satellite navigation, and had enough federal homeland security money to buy two more.
"You are always concerned that there is a possibility that Sept. 11 can happen again, right here with us," Sgt. Ed Coleman explained back then.
What had appeared necessary for the security of the nation and the citizens of Baltimore is suddenly not so necessary anymore. Money isn't flowing as it was then; in fact, city police are cutting back while dealing with nearly a murder-a-day crime pace that started at the beginning of November and threatens to overshadow gains made earlier this year in reducing the number of killings.
The city's five police boats are still docked between Fells Point and Canton, but the 14 officers assigned there have dwindled to a single sergeant, who can go out if required. It's nearly winter, crime is surging, the budget is tight and the police commissioner has redeployed the marine officers to different jobs, at least until the ice thaws and people go sailing again.
WFTND Blog Information
An emergency manager trying to make a difference.
The name of the blog comes from a conversation with my daughter, where she told me that I was always looking to help people be prepared for the inevitable emergencies in life.
I started this blog as a place to assemble all the information that I was getting every day and to share my thoughts and ideas on emergency management.
I had no idea how much of the blog would wind up being what's in the news. While it does not take a lot to add a blog entry, I just did not realize how much of my day was involved with simply keeping up with what's going on. All of the posts, whether what's in the news or comments or just a piece of information, have a purpose; to get us thinking, to get us talking, and to make things better - in other words, to make a difference.
Hopefully this blog will save you some time and energy, or help you in some other way. If you would like to see something, please let me know.
Posting an article does not imply that I agree with the comments in the article. In fact, in many case, I do not agree, but feel that the comments should be part of the discussion. All opinions are welcome. I only ask that you remain considerate and professional of other opinions.
CLICK ON "MY WEB PAGE" ON THE WFTND BLOG PROFILE PAGE FOR MY LINKEDIN PUBLIC PROFILE
The name of the blog comes from a conversation with my daughter, where she told me that I was always looking to help people be prepared for the inevitable emergencies in life.
I started this blog as a place to assemble all the information that I was getting every day and to share my thoughts and ideas on emergency management.
I had no idea how much of the blog would wind up being what's in the news. While it does not take a lot to add a blog entry, I just did not realize how much of my day was involved with simply keeping up with what's going on. All of the posts, whether what's in the news or comments or just a piece of information, have a purpose; to get us thinking, to get us talking, and to make things better - in other words, to make a difference.
Hopefully this blog will save you some time and energy, or help you in some other way. If you would like to see something, please let me know.
Posting an article does not imply that I agree with the comments in the article. In fact, in many case, I do not agree, but feel that the comments should be part of the discussion. All opinions are welcome. I only ask that you remain considerate and professional of other opinions.
CLICK ON "MY WEB PAGE" ON THE WFTND BLOG PROFILE PAGE FOR MY LINKEDIN PUBLIC PROFILE
Favorite Quotes for the Emergency Manager
- “In preparing for battle I have always found that plans are useless, but planning is indispensable.” Dwight D. Eisenhower
- “Motivation is the art of getting people to do what you want them to do because they want to do it.” Dwight D. Eisenhower
- “Failing to plan is planning to fail”
- “Expect the best, plan for the worst, and prepare to be surprised.” Denis Waitley
- "Station 51, KMG365."
- “One of the true tests of leadership is the ability to recognize a problem before it becomes an emergency.” Arnold H. Glasgow
- “An ostrich with its head in the sand is just as blind to opportunity as to disaster”
- “The powers in charge keep us in a perpetual state of fear keep us in a continuous stampede of patriotic fervor with the cry of grave national emergency. Always there has been some terrible evil to gobble us up if we did not blindly rally behind it by furnishing the exorbitant sums demanded. Yet, in retrospect, these disasters seem never to have happened, seem never to have been quite real.” Douglas MacArthur
- “My ideas have undergone a process of emergence by emergency. When they are needed badly enough, they are accepted.” Buckminster Fuller
- “Bad planning on your part does not constitute an emergency on my part”
- "If you can keep your head when all about you Are losing theirs and blaming it on you, ..." Rudyard Kipling
- "Facts do not cease to exist because they are ignored." Aldous Huxley
Thursday, December 18, 2008
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