COPS Grant and the Free Market System

In the following blog, I posted a comment which related public safety work to the free market system. As I have stated elsewhere, qualified public safety candidates are an increasingly rare 'commodity', competition for cops and firefighters is high, and the city is shooting itself in the foot with its rhetoric, decisions and treatment of its employees. Here's the link: http://www.sanjoseinside.com/news/entries/07_06_11_cops_grant_poa_george_beattie_debra_figone_police_layoffs/

and here's my comment:

Once again, you fail to grasp the nature of the free market economy. San Jose’s police officers are not beholden to the city in any way. They are free to seek employment in other cities - cities which are more fiscally responsible, cities which pay better wages and benefits than does San Jose, cities which treat their employees in a more ethical manner than does San Jose. Apparently, you and others on this blog fail to grasp this basic notion: people qualified and willing to be police officers - or firefighters - are a diminishing resource. Competition to attract those individuals is stiff. Agencies throughout the state - indeed, across the nation - do their utmost to solicit qualified officers from other agencies as this is the most cost-effective means of recruiting officers to accommodate attrition or the needs of an increasing population. Dozens of officers have left San Jose over the last year or so to lateral to other agencies across the state and as far away as Texas.

San Jose used to do this also, just a few years ago. It no longer does. It now enjoys a national reputation for being an unethical, irresponsible, and untrustworthy employer - a reputation for which the voters are as much to blame as the leadership in City Hall