Lazy Aldermen Look to the Police to Solve Budgetary Problems

Embarrassing. Apparently some aldermen in the city of Calgary feel that they can add a few million to their budget by simply asking police officers to increase the amounts of tickets they give out to the offending public.

Aldermen approved the change in a 9-6 vote as they tried to find ways to cut millions from its 2006-08 budget, which calls for a 5.4 per cent tax increase next year.

Beaton was disappointed with council’s expectation of the police service as a revenue generator.

Sorry Beaton, but the policy service is already a revenue generator - it’s called photo radar and I’m surprised it wasn’t suggested as a possible solution to the cities problems. Double the amount photo radar machines snapping photos of speedy drivers and you can likely double your revenues. Unfortunately this does little to improve safety and only increases a municipality’s dependency on profit marking crimes.