Note also this passage from the article on Pat Norris’ tenure:
One consistent complaint from residents has been how police handle property crimes, council members said. Murders and robberies might get more attention, but burglaries are far more widespread and have increased each year under Norris.
And some residents have said that patrol officers can be hard to reach to find out what’s happening with a case. Burglars often tally many victims before they’re caught.
“The frustration I hear from people again and again is, ‘What can we do to catch these people who break into homes?’” said Robert Clark, a city council member.
Leave aside for a moment the four murders in 48 hours here in Greensboro. GPD evidently is still having problems getting cops on the scene of property crimes, as noted in this week’s Rhino. John Hammer has a simple explanantion:
It’s not the fault of the police, although the Police Department is having its own management problems with all but one of former Chief Wray’s command staff having left. The problem is the council wants to fund everything else but not the Police Department. This year the City Council left City Manager Mitch Johnson a $640,000 slush fund. That is money Johnson can spend how he sees fit, but it is also money that the council could have used to hire more police officers.
