message from chief berger

The police response to The Mother’s Day Fires validated our response to handle catastrophic situations.  This is extremely important as we enter the 2008 Hurricane Season.  Although 30 homes were lost in the fire and over 130 were damaged, the overall performance of both the fire and police departments could be described as outstanding.  Our hearts and best wishes go out to all the victims of the fire.

As we enter the new budget year, it will be more difficult to continue to provide the service level of over 200,000 calls for police service per year, which has been growing at approximately 5% per year.  A combination of poor economy and the passage of Amendment 1 will result in the reduction of four sworn positions, which will cause a cutback in our award-winning Policing Unit, eliminating our School Resource Officer at Palm Bay High School, and eliminating our motorcycle program but not our traffic enforcement as the price of the motorcycle has almost doubled over the past year.

Instead of dwelling on the negative, the Police Department is redefining our services and everything that we do as an organization encompassing the concept of intelligence based policing.  Do more with less and strategizing through our districts’ daily assignments of resources to hot spot areas within the city.  The Police Department’s enthusiasm and commitment to service is not dampened over our current financial challenges.

Until next time,

Chief Berger

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