To the editor:
Now that both the Greenfield Police Department and the Hancock County Sheriff are again complaining about the salaries in their departments, perhaps we should consider an alternative.
Police across the country have been saying all along that they are being asked to do jobs for which they are not equipped. For example, domestic violence cases, those addicted to drugs and alcohol, the homeless and the jobless.
Let’s take the police at their word and do something about it: Start hiring social workers as policemen. Not as a special unit, but have them right on the street where they encounter the problems that regular officers meet.
Would enough of them be interested? It’s the challenge of a lifetime for them, so why not at least ask them?
And the salary that the police scoff at is right about where social worker graduates start when they leave college.
Cora Snider
McCordsville
