SAFETY
"There's a difference between nice and necessary. You fix the necessary first."
Brian Kennedy
Safety is the measure by which people choose neighborhoods to live and work and select schools for their children to attend. Let's face it. Safety IS quality of life. It's also the all-American measure that we are likely to take a little bit for granted.
THE GOOD NEWS!
Among the nation's 100 largest cities, El Paso STILL ranks in the top ten safest cities, a designation we've earned a number of times: 2017, 2018, 2019, 2021, 2023, 2024.
*According to crime data compiled by the FBI in their Uniform Crime Report.
That says a lot because we haven't always made it easy.
Up until recently, you could make more as a cashier in El Paso than you could as a new law recruit swearing to put their life on the line in the time-honored profession of law enforcement. $15 an hour made it hard to secure new recruits and even harder to retain them. Before we could even get them graduated they were being hired away by other cities. Which meant we weren't able to fill the ranks.
In 2023, we negotiated a new contract and new benefits to tip that scale back in our favor, and we are beginning to see results.
And let's not forget firefighters. In 2022, a new contract was approved. We still have pension concerns we are currently working on. Taking cere of first responders is an on-going process.
That's why it's important to have someone at the table that's committed to growth, understands compromise, looks for creative solutions and NEVER FORGETS they are there to represent your interest.