“I never saw it coming,” Fike said. “I should have been more prepared than what I was. I ended up dealing with an elderly man with dementia and you always expect the drug-runners from Detroit, or wherever, coming back and forth, but you never expect something like that taking place.”
Fike found himself staring down the barrel of a gun and being fired at before returning fire, striking the man.
“It’s very humbling,” Fike said. “It’s very surreal. It puts a whole different perspective on the human life and the value. Our pay is not much to begin with. And when you are putting the ultimate sacrifice, which is your life, on the line to protect others, it‘s very humbling.”
Fike was one of several law enforcement officers who gathered in the FOP lodge to talk about the dangers of staffing cuts dictated by the latest state budget cuts.
“Backups are a wonderful thing. You’re always happy when you see your backup. Typically on my shift we have two on the road and a township deputy,” Fike said. “Unfortunately, in the county it’s not an everyday thing that we have. At the county we do more with less. You ask any county deputy and he’ll explain to you in detail. You might leave the department and go out on patrol and never see another officer during the entire shift.”
Last year, 158 law enforcement officers were killed in the line of duty — four in Ohio. So far this year in Ohio, five officers have been killed in the line of duty, and 65 across the country. Officer deaths by gunfire are up 88 percent over the same period last year.
“A lot of what we do gets lost in all the politics and budget cuts,” Portsmouth Police officer and President of FOP Lodge 33 said. “Budget cuts have a great deal of effect on what we can do, how we can do it, and where our backup is.”
FRANK LEWIS may be reached at (740) 353-3101, ext. 232, or flewis@heartlandpublications.com.
The simple fact of the matter is this government has no clue about accounting practices and principles. They use our money as they please without caring what tax payers want or need.
Until tighter controls are put in place to spend money the way it is legally supposed to be spent, this city should be shut down and run by the state.
It's not that we want less protection, in fact quite the opposite, we want protection from misappropriation of our hard earned dollars. Can you offer us that assurance? Can anyone in this city offer tax payers that assurance?
The REALITY is, cuts MUST be made and it is very realistic to assign one or two officers an on-call car to drive home on a rotating week schedule. And,if they live within the city, then they can take them home and not one extra foot of distance considered. The city lives with a charter forcing a 5 year (now 3 year) exclusion from the poltical process. So, if you don't live there then you don't get use of take home vehicle assets either.
So you collective gang members need to start listening to your employer (the city and its people) that they are serious about trimming cost and stop the fear campaigning.
" “It’s very humbling,” Fike said. “It’s very surreal. It puts a whole different perspective on the human life and the value. Our pay is not much to begin with. And when you are putting the ultimate sacrifice, which is your life, on the line to protect others, it‘s very humbling.” "
No one doubts the type of job and environment Mr Fikes and others works under. To serve in such a fashion is worthy of recognition.
However, lets remain objective about the "Our pay is not much to begin with" comment. When you factor in paid time off, over time, health care, and pension paid on behalf of the average tax paying citizen to fund their benefits, the over all compensation is well beyond what the average tax payers (the sherrifs employer) gets in life.
It would also be very humbling for small town municipalitys to get their budgets under control without increasing life long tax burden on its citizens. One place to start is REMOVING things from collective bargained pay and benefit packaged agreeements; such as removing from those sickenly un-American collective agreements the authority from citys on how to use and allocate its vehicle assets. That is the citys business on how it chooses to use its vehicle assets. Not a gangs business (union or otherwise).
It is very easy to solve: Every week, assign one or two off-hour officers a take home care for "back up". EVERYONE knows and thinks this Deputy Sheriff Fike.
Tough time calls for touch measures.