Local control. There’s nothing like it when it comes to public service because the results are in the hands of those who most directly have something to gain or lose. Giving it up is a critical error, yet it is one the city is considering with the men and women who protect its residents — the Poulsbo Police Department.
While response times wouldn’t take a drastic hit in contracting law enforcement to the Kitsap County Sheriff’s Office (that is unless it wasn’t financially feasible to continue at the current levels) the loss of input would be detrimental to the public this city serves.
If say, the “local” department needed an officer or two, the whole process would be out of the control of those most directly impacted. Sure residents could still say their piece but they’d also be stuck in a take a number situation at the KCSO. Sheriff Boyer’s doing a fine job but doesn’t need this gigantic enchilada on his already overflowing plate.
He’s a busy guy, and as a result, won’t be able to give the growing city the attention in deserves. Not all dishes survive on the backburner and immediate police attention is among them.
Meanwhile Poulsbo residents are shocked — and rightly so — that such a suggestion was even made to begin with.
While turning back time might be a feat fit for Superman, it’s out of the realm of feasibility for Poulsbo Mayor Kathryn Quade. Even so, she is hardly powerless and should just remove the option from the PPD process study altogether. For now, at least.
If it is such a far fetched, long shot, last possible option why even review such a hot button issue? Why not wait and see if it’s needed at all and then present it when all other alternatives don’t pan out.
Options are great to consider … to a point. After that point, they become foolhardy.
Example, alleviate traffic on State Route 305 by a) adding more lanes or b) applying magnetic-propulsion technology to whisk commuters to and from Poulsbo to a waiting bottleneck at the Agate Pass Bridge? The flying bus and teleportation proposals must have fallen into the crack between the mayor’s desk and the wall.
But that’s another editorial altogether.
