Opinion: SCPD Wants Tazer Money?

SCPD wants $235,000 for Tazers - how can they justify this expenditure? If you've lived in Santa Cruz long, you’ve seen multiple squad cars gathered around one person seated on the sidewalk by their belongings. This kind of stuff happens regularly. This past Friday, the city manager sent close to 30 officers to evict the newest camp behind Ross. Residents here know that the cops’ main purpose is to manage visible public poverty.

Successive police chiefs have admitted this approach doesn’t solve anything. Chief Vogel testified on the city’s now-modified camping ban that 90% of illegal camping tickets went unpaid. Chief Mills’ recent piece on illegal camps flatly stated “ordinances will not solve homelessness[...]The drivers of homelessness are lack of affordable housing[...]effective mental health services, and drug addiction.”

Well, Tazers won’t help with those issues either. Our problems come from low wages, high rents, drug addiction, and mental illness. Instead of buying new weapons, the city council should invest in social services the chief himself is calling for.