Plymouth Township’s ticking time bomb
Jan. 2, 2013 PLYMOUTH VOICE.
OPINION
Months have passed since Plymouth Township officials approached Police Department union personnel with a proposal to combine fire fighter and police duties into public safety officer position, commonly known as PSO’s.
Plymouth Township supervisor, Richard Reaume stated the township administration is considering a PSO plan for their police and fire departments. The PSO plan is a model that has proven a failure in many communities, according to fire department officials and firefighters.
With no commitment or public disclosure of the details of their plan, Township officials have promoted continued turbulence and ongoing uncertainty regarding the Plymouth Township Fire Department, which has been reduced to only 13 firefighters responsible for the protection of 28,000 residents.
Experts and professional fire fighters feel the current effort to gut the fire department and outsource their jobs is a wrong decision and unsafe for residents and citizens alike, and justifiably so.
Police officers from the township police department, despite the recent “take-it-or-leave-it” contract they have been given from the current, and recently re-elected, administration are equally unhappy with the plan to have each police officer become trained as a firefighter as part of a new Public Safety Officer plan.
Despite the emotions, confusion and insecurity that accompanies all this turmoil, these men, in both departments, continue to go to work and do their jobs in an exemplary manner every single day.
There are no incidents of any of these township officers, either fire or police, withholding effort or doing less than the best job they can, and living up to their pledge to serve the public to the very best of their ability. They’re doing this despite the veritable and continual attacks launched at them from the very people who are supposed to support and champion their efforts.
