Feds to Fire Cops; Not Enough Federal Tax Dollars

Now… please tell me again why we pay taxes.

A Hard Working American pays the Tax Cuts for the Wealthy

At least, why does the working man pay taxes?

We mustn’t forget those poor, poor multi-milionaire type rich folks who live off money they didn’t work to earn, who pay far, far less than you or I.

What is it called? Interest income?

And what was that tax break for Rich Folk called?

Oh yes… the Capital Gains Tax Cut – sometimes also called the Paris Hilton Tax Cut.

 

TVA eliminating police force

Officials concerned about patrols of federal property falling to strapped local departments

By Robert Palmer
Staff Writer

TVA police are about to enter the pages of history, and there are plenty of local law enforcement officials who don’t like the fate of the 61 uniformed federal officers.

The Tennessee Valley Authority is doing away with its uniformed patrol division, turning over some of their duties to contractors and electronic surveillance, and the rest to local law enforcement.

In the Shoals, that means the bulk of the 2,600-acre Muscle Shoals Reservation and outlying TVA recreation areas will now be patrolled by local and state officers. The 61 TVA Police officers will be allowed to apply for other TVA jobs — where there are openings.

The handful of police supervisors are considered management and will become investigators, the only vestige of the police force that will remain, TVA spokesman Scott Brooks said.

“This decision was made as part of our restructuring,” Brooks said. “We are restructuring from the top down, and it began two weeks ago.”

Word of the dissolution of the TVA police began to spread among local law enforcement this week. TVA has maintained a uniformed law enforcement division since its creation by Congress in 1933.

“I was surprised,” Colbert County Sheriff Ronnie May said. “I learned some of their officers might not even meet retirement requirements.”

May has called a meeting of Colbert law enforcement officials and a TVA police representative next week to discuss the transition.

There are plenty of questions May and others want answered.

“It’s a federal reservation. Does a local policeman have the authority to enforce the law there?” Sheffield Police Chief Greg Ray asked. “No one has approached me about this yet, but I can see it being problematic.”

May said there are homeland security issues involved in responding to calls on federal property.

“We’re working four cars per shift, and I don’t know how many acres and miles we’re talking about,” he said. “It’s going to be interesting.”

May said he has asked for a list of homeland security sites on the reservation, maps of the property where TVA police patrolled and duties the federal officers normally handle.

TVA police were covering as much as 300 miles per day, making their response times slow, Brooks said.

Handing patrol and enforcement to local departments, which were already working with TVA, makes sense, he said.

TVA will not realize a savings from eliminating its uniformed patrol, Brooks said.
The money that is being used for the police will be shifted to security and technology enhancements at dams and substations, he said.

Both May and Ray said their departments operate on tight budgets and have limited manpower, which makes taking on additional duties, at best, a challenge.

“This is a decision made by folks a long way from here that don’t have any personal contact with the community,” May said of TVA’s decision about its police force. “If you lived here, worked here and cared for the area, you wouldn’t do this.”

Robert Palmer can be reached at 256-740-5720 or robert.palmer@TimesDaily.com.