Political Chops

Constant Readers,
On Tuesday I wrote that it will be interesting to watch Supervisor Mirkarimi (who is a pro-public-safety progressive) navigate this budget season, what with all the law and order cuts being proposed so as to free up money for other causes. Well, Ross did not disappoint.

Below is my dramatic interpretation of today’s debate in the Budget and Finance Committee on the issue of whether to cut $200k from reserves that is set aside for additional public safety cameras and another $369k for maintenance and upkeep of the current system of cameras and ShotSpotters.

Daly: Cut all the funds.

McGoldrick: Yeah! This is a civil liberties issue. It reminds me of the time I spent in Spain. They didn’t have cameras everywhere. But, you know, it was really un-private. (No, I did not make that up.)

Mirkarimi: The ordinance I authored protects civil liberties. I’m fabulous for that, by the way. But I’m more concerned about the effectiveness of the cameras. I mean, the Chronicle wrote about how damaged and effed up they are.

Elsbernd: Well, if you want them to work, you might not want to cut the funding required to fix them.

Mirkarimi: There’s no evidence that they lower the crime rate.

Mayor’s guy: Actually preliminary reports show that cameras reduce the crime rate in the areas around the cameras. The final report comes out in August.

Mirkarimi: Well, since we haven’t seen any evidence that the cameras work…

Me out loud to no one: Jesuschrist, the man just said!

…let’s keep the $200k for future cameras in case the study is positive. And just cut every cent of the money needed to fix and maintain the current ones.

[Note: Thereby ensuring that the study won’t be positive.]

Elsbernd: That doesn’t make any goddam sense.

Me out loud to no one: That doesn’t make any goddam sense.

Daly, McGoldrick and Mirkarimi: Sounds good to us!

And so Mirkarimi’s "compromise" passed over the dissenting votes of Elsbernd and Chu. And me.

--Melissa

Comments

[Jamie]

God bless the sensible Board of Supervisors members Sean Elsbernd and Carmen Chu. I'm sorry they have to put up with the George W. Bush PINOses (Progressives In Name Only) Daly, Mirkarimi, and McGoldrick.

[sfmike]

Dear Melissa, the cameras are expensive and essentially worthless. They haven't led to a single prosecution of a single person, as far as I know. I saw the guy who runs the video camera company at a commitee meeting, and he looked like a scam artist who's probably related to someone who procured him a multi-million dollar contract for providing crappy video. His defense, by the way, was ridiculous, sort of a "well, for another million more we can get slightly higher resolution." And then it turns out that nobody actually watches these stupid videos. The police are too busy doing, gosh, something.

As far as "deterring" crime, that's nonsense too. People can go a block away from a camera if they want, but most people in San Francisco don't bother, since they know the police don't give a good damn what's going on around them in this town, so the cameras are just a silly way to throw money at a problem in an attempt to "do something, anything." How about just having the police get out of their cars and actually patrol a neighborhood? I know it's retro, but it actually sort of works.

[el Greco]

Unfortunately, sfmike is pretty much correct. The resolution on the cameras was so poor that it turns out it is difficult to get a positive ID of anyone. And, yes, the cops aren't watching them--good news for McGoldbrick's civil rights concerns. And even if those weren't enough, Kamala is not interested in prosecuting too much. Number of arrests effected by the cams? I have a suspicion that it's zero.

[sangfroid826]

the "fabulous" remark is a nice touch.

he really does use that word a lot.

[Sweet Melissa]

@sfMike and elGreco - Regardless what you think about the cameras, the unassailable fact is this: keeping the $200k for new cameras while removing all money for current cameras is ignorant, unintelligent and nonsensical. At least Daly's proposal was internally consistent.

[el Greco]

Melissa, we're in agreement on the stupidity of what was proposed. I am actually for those cameras, just not the lackadaisical execution the city has done. Let's get the money needed to upgrade or maintain the existing cameras, add more cameras for better coverage, get someone to watch the video, and find a DA with some spine who will prosecute thugs.

[Jeremy]

The Examiner makes it sound like Mirkarimi's proposal was to use the $200K (that was originally budgeted for new cameras) for maintenance instead.

"Mirkarimi . . . said that the department has $200,000 on reserve this fiscal year for the purchase of 25 additional cameras that it could instead use on repairs and maintenance."
http://www.examiner.com/a-1461802~Crime_cameras_out_of_the_picture_.html