Reconsideration of Reorganization of the Richardson Police Department, Richardson, TX

The Richardson Police Department has, in conjunction with the Richardson City Council and the City Manager, proposed a full reorganization of the police department. The reorganization will eliminate almost all positions of the Investigations division and place officers that vacated these positions in the Patrol division. The Crime Prevention division would also be eliminated. The result of these moves would force a patrol officer in a given area to handle all aspects of law enforcement from report writing for an offense to investigating the offense (which almost always entails interviewing victims and witnesses, let alone searching for perpetrators of the offense). The patrol officer would also be responsible for preventing crime in the respective area.

We, as concerned Richardson citizens, feel that the patrol officers would be unable to efficiently manage all of the aforementioned duties. We ask that the City Council take a step back and reconsider this reorganization, taking into account all of the views and concerns that have been voiced since this plan had been initially considered.