In an announcement nobody saw coming, Mayor Carty Finkbeiner …
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Toledo police struggling since layoffs
Updated: Wednesday, 03 Jun 2009, 10:22 PM EDT
Published : Wednesday, 03 Jun 2009, 4:04 PM EDT
DOWNTOWN TOLEDO - Toledo Police Chief Mike Navarre said Wednesday that parts of his department and the city are suffering as a result of a mass layoff of officers May 1.
Chief Navarre and his command staff have been forced to restructure after 75 officers were slashed May 1 the wake of Toledo's $15 million budget deficit.
In addressing city council, Chief Navarre said his main goal is to keep around 300 officers on street patrol 24 hours a day.
"For a city of our size, (my officers) have their hands full," he said. "Person crimes, rapes, homicides, and felonious assaults are covered, but property crimes have never been investigated well. To do that we need more detectives and we're seeing the impact of the layoffs."
"The man on the 22nd floor has to come out of dream land and realize crime is on the rise and we can't respond to it with the number of officers we have out there," said Dan Wagner, Toledo Police Patrolman's Association President.
Chief Navarre said two departments hurting the most are the detective bureau and the vice narcotic division. The detective bureau shed 17 officers while Vice narcotics lost five.
Navarre said in the past the city's police department could do a lot of prevention work, but now they just don't have the man power.
Many members of the police union and city residents showed up to voice their concerns about the layoffs to the council committee, but at the beginning of the meeting the chair, Wilma Brown, made it clear no one would be able to comment.
In a statement released Wednesday evening, Safety Director Bob Reinbolt said while the number of homicides in May was high, the rate remains below other cities of Toledo's size.
(FOX Toledo's Michelle Zepeda contributed to this report)
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