I’m sure there are studies that show technology improves crime fighting and increases force protection — just as it does for the military. I’ll have to take a look around since I know it is out there.

Most police technology probably won’t reduce the number of police needed.

Upgrading weapons systems — including non-lethal weaponry — can improve the ability of officers to respond to a situation, but probably won’t reduce the need for men and women to operate them.

Adding computers to squad cars to check for warrants and to communicate digitally doesn’t reduce the need for an officer, but makes their work more effective. On the back end, having a computer may reduce the need for staff back at the station pulling physical files and doing checks because the officer is doing that work from the in-car terminal.

Indiana will be going to an electronic ticket system one of these days to increase efficiency in the criminal justice system.

Having evidence gathering capabilities requires money, i.e. a crime lab with trained evidence techs.

Body armor / bullet-proof vests cost money but are necessary in today’s society.

Having relatively new car fleets is required since repairing squad cars can get expensive, as well as reduce effectiveness as major systems wear out. We don’t want to have police cars break down while responding to emergency calls.

Having more technology to check for warrants and other police intelligence helps keep society safe in these days when people are highly mobile.

NYC cleaned up its city by busting people for little crimes — it took many of the people who were inclined to commit major crimes off the street. Catching someone with a warrant from another jurisdiction might be something that inter-connected computer systems allow that paper-based systems kept in individual stations don’t.

If all that technology resulted in the need for less police and firefighers, and, thus, lowered taxes in the long term, I’d be all for it. But maybe you could argue that it does catch more crooks. I’d like to see a study showing that, in fact.

I’m going to have to differ from you on the police and firefighters.

I’d rather have officers paid fairly well, rather than being hungry and having to work two or three extra jobs to earn a middle class wage. While police work is a calling, not paying officers enough to survive just ends up creating high turnover in a department, which reduces the amount of experience and ability to do a decent job at law enforcement. We want people who know what it going on, rather than having to train people, who leave for sunnier climates for higher pay after getting a bunch of training and initial experience.

Police (and firefighters) are the front line, first responders who protect America — they are usually the first to roll up on whatever bad is happening in society, whether it is a domestic dispute or terror incident or bad auto accident.

We want them to be professional and compensated for the risks they take, since their quality of life usually suffers for the work they do.

Technology is necessary to protect society.

Catch a speeder and a police officer might catch a hardened criminal with a warrant.

High-tech radios, computers, and other law enforcement gear helps with detecting who is a regular citizen and who is a bad guy who needs to be locked up. A fake ID can be easily detected. A warrant can be found in the system. Bad guys and gals can be apprehended. Traffic stops can be recorded to stop false reports of police brutality and to provide evidence in court cases, such as DUIs.

Equipping firefighters with the best equipment is a no-brainer.

Firefighters go out to save people who have heart attacks and other medical emergencies, so we want them to be able to respond within the Golden Hour, get the patient ready for transport quickly, then get them to the ER quickly and safely, while providing life saving treatment the whole time.

Firefighters provide a lot of medical care in America. I remember seeing fire trucks in my old neighborhood a lot — they weren’t responding to fires, but to elderly neighbors with medical emergencies. Sometimes they got to the scene before the ambulance arrived.

There are other areas to cut without dipping into the pubic safety pool. Cut out a lot of the waste — overspending for supplies, relatives and cronies with multiple jobs, are just a few ideas — instead of cutting the police and firefighters.

Now, there is a question of whether a budget remaining the same as a previous year’s is a really a cut, but that’s a question for another time.

1) They’re represented by public employee unions. Their pay and benefits are very inflated relative to similar, non-public employee professions as a result.

2) They use WAAAY too much technology. Have you seen the inside of a cop car these days? That stuff is EXPENSIVE.

3) The number of fires in this country has been falling steadily over time, despite a growing population. the number of firefighters needs to be adjusted DOWNWARD as a result.

So… freeze the number of firefighters, eliminate the public employee unions, and don’t introduce any more technology, and I’m a happy camper.