John O'Brien

It's good that you are concerned with Dallas being fiscally responsible and with measurable results for those who provide city services, Clay. We are, too.

We like to see the city spend our money wisely. We want to make sure that the city is as efficient and effective as it can be in allocating our money where it is needed most.

To this end, we think that paying a proven, professional service to automatically log scrap transactions, then offer them in a user-friendly investigative system designed BY law enforcement FOR law enforcement, is a better way to spend taxpayer dollars than the old way:

(1) Paying for the overtime (or even just the normal time) it takes for officers to go to all the scrap yards in Dallas and collect the literally thousands of scrap transaction records these yards produce each and every week

(2) Paying for the fuel to send those officers to each and every scrap yard

(3) Paying for the time it takes for officers to then collate those transaction records

(4) Paying for the time it takes for someone to then enter all of the transactions into a database

(5) Paying for the time it takes for officers to finally, perhaps weeks or months after the fact, get to some useful information to help them investigate the crime

We all have an interest in saving the city money. Cutting down on all of the costs listed above would certainly do that. It also lets investigators get back to doing what they want to do -- catch the criminals -- instead of hassling with of all of this important but time-consuming administrative work.

Not only that, but by catching and putting these criminals in jail, we can help make our community safer and save the victims of these crimes the money it takes to replace the A/C units or other metal items stolen from them.

Did you know that, in Texas, it costs an average of $5000 to repair a utility theft? A theft which generally nets the criminal probably only about $100 or less? That’s money the city may not have to spend if the criminal were behind bars already.

It would also have been a good thing if FWISD had not had $155k in damage they will have to repair in less than three weeks.

The system is already proven in Houston and around the country. We just think it would be a good thing for Dallas if we had the same success fighting metal theft that Houston is seeing.

We catch the crooks. We help cops. We help the community. Everyone wins but the bad guys.

That’s why we do what we do.

Sincerely,

John O’Brien