Displaying items by tag: Clearwater buudget cuts

Clearwater, FL -- On a rainy Thursday evening in late May, concerned citizens from the East Gateway neighborhood of Clearwater came together in the City Chambers to speak out regarding potential cutbacks to the police contingent in their neighborhood.

The City of Clearwater is facing $7 to $13 million dollars worth of budget cuts.  The City of Clearwater commissioned a matrix efficiency study to find out any areas of potential improvement or cost reduction. This study reported the police department is run for the most part efficiently, but could save by reducing the number of bike team staff as well as eliminating the Beach Walk team, despite the fact that Clearwater already has the lowest officer-to-1,000 citizens ratio for any tourist destination city in Florida and that crime in the beach area has been significantly reduced.