While voters in Corpus Christi have been looking at the ballot of candidates for mayor and city council, they will be faced with deciding on two propositions there as well. The one garnering the most attention was Proposition B, which dealt with an amendment to the city charter involving water rates for industrial customers during drought periods. The other is Proposition A, which calls for either support or rejection of the Crime Control and Prevention District sales tax for the next 10 years.
A former board member with the Crime Control and Prevention District, Mariah Boone outlined the history of the group, which started in the early 1990s and gained traction when it involved several organizations that would help police and focus on juvenile truancy and crime.
"The temporary board put together this plan, and they put it before the voters," she said. "And the plan was to create this juvenile assessment center and fund it through the sales tax, and also to fund 50 police officers for the police department through the sales tax."
On the other side of the issue is the beneficiary of the Crime Control and Prevention District, the Corpus Christi Police Department. It's been a part of the group since the inception, and now is a singular recipient of funding via those sales taxes.
Corpus Christi Chief of Police Mike Markle, who's been involved with the Crime Control and Prevention District while he was assistant chief.
"It's helped with like ancillary things like IT for those officers, you know, it helps pay for tasers for you know non-lethal components that we need," he said. "There's all kinds of things crime control can help. It's all form and function of police work, but all necessary for for those officers to do their job."
The district initially began with a five-year period in 1997 before it was voted on again, and in 2016, that five years went up to 10.
"That five years is is a good term, but you have better planning ability, better rate, better outlay for the future when you know you have 10 years of of solid revenue to support that number of officers," Markle said. "Five year's a blink."
What was once a model program that helped both law enforcement and youth changed over the course of time, sales taxes declined, and the Crime Control and Prevention District Board made cuts that affected the work being done with juveniles in favor of more for local police.
"And what the Crime Control District gave us steady funding that was not dependent on those whims and fashions, so that we could absolutely stay evidence-based the whole time, and that was wonderful," Boone said. "And to me, it's so sad that we've lost it.
The CCPD has benefited greatly from the exclusivity given by the Crime Control District, to the point that the program first started funding 20 officers. It now funds 78.
"I'm not overly concerned," Markle said. "I do want our community to have the right messaging. You know, it's not. It's it's vital for our function as a as a professional agency to have the staffing necessary."
A election day leads voters to the polls today, Proposition A on the Corpus Christi ballot will come under some level of study as to whether the Crime Control and Prevention District will get approval for another 10 years, or not. On one hand, the Corpus Christi Police Department will get some needed personnel and equipment to their ranks that will continue to make the city safe. On the other, the possibility that local citizens will either ignore the proposition or even vote it down.
