Op-Ed Student Blog 1 Beau Bichler

 The firefighter's union in Tallahassee has been at an impasse regarding contract negotiations for over a year. Firefighters are resigning at a concerning rate, and the fire department is understaffed as a result. If I were to pick a single current issue that our mayor and local elected officials should focus on it is this. The fire department are a crucial yet often overlooked type of first responder. The problems they deal with are unique to their department, and the importance of expertise in this matter cannot be understated. Firefighters need unique training and must deal with unique and severe mental strain as a result of their jobs. Even after they have retired firefighters see incredibly damaging long term health issues related to a career of physical strain and smoke inhalation. It is a dangerous and often thankless job, so the fact that the capital of the state cannot find money to pay their union wages is plainly ridiculous. This points to a larger issue I have taken with the way the city allocates its budget among first responders. A noticeable emphasis is placed on the Tallahassee police department in regard to public funds and has been for some time. While I do not doubt the importance of any first responder to maintaining peace and public order, if a department as crucial as the fire department lacks funds as a result, I think it is only appropriate to take a look at where the disconnect between the city government and the needs of their departments lay.

The city of Tallahassee loves her police. They are a crucial arm of the government, and the city recognizes this and treats them accordingly. Since 2020 the police budget has grown more and more with each passing year, most recently enjoying a nine million dollar increase in their yearly budget. The discussion with the police union lasted only three sessions while the discussion for the fire department is still at a gridlock at the time of writing. Obviously, the amount of danger that comes with police work is considerable and those that undertake the task should be secure in their salaries and pensions. However, the job done by the fire department is no less dangerous or crucial. Comparing the two professions is a pointless endeavor as they are both so necessary to a functioning city, but comparing the ways in which the departments are supported lays bare a clear bias within the city government. The city of Tallahassee, indeed most cities in Florida, focus a massive amount of their yearly funding on their police. The purported reason on the TPD homepage for the budget increase is to “decrease violent crime”. However, in the timeframe I mentioned since 2020 violent crime has steadily risen. The reasons for this are myriad and could be discussed at length, but the most important thing is that an increase in budget has done little to improve the police department's ability to respond to violent crime. This is not to say that there is some rising tide of crime, the crime rate fluctuates much in the same way it always does increasing somewhat for a few years only to decrease later on. Truth be told an increase in budget will likely do little to help either way. Crime is best prevented at its source, treating the social problems that feed into the culture of desperation that often causes crime to rise in specific areas. The fire department does not combat a social ill, they fight fires. It is a job that simply must be done, and those that do it are underserved at the cost of often frivolous public spending. While the city government withholds funds from the fire department with a tight fist, the new Tallahassee police department headquarters has ballooned from a budget of 60 million to a budget of 135 million. For the city to say they don’t have the meager budget increase requested by the fire department while a brand-new police headquarters is currently being built is almost insulting to those that risk their lives putting out fires. 

I would call on our elected officials and our mayor to change the way they view first responders. So often when people refer to first responders they are merely talking about the police. The police are important, of course, but the ways in which they can contribute to the public welfare are limited to catching and prosecuting criminals. So often police are seen to hurt more than help, but medical professionals and firefighters by the nature of the job can only help people. When money is diverted from those services those services are less able to provide an unequivocal public good. This would be more bearable if the money went somewhere worthwhile, but as we see it rarely does.