To be safer every public safety program currently in effect must be evaluated to determine its effectiveness and continuing need. By conferring with the chief of police and the department's superior officers, as well as with representatives of the Hamilton PBA who are actually the people doing the job on the street, we will determine what our community's requirements are for first-class law enforcement. Whether it's more officers, more cars, more foot and bicycle patrols, more neighborhood crime watch units, or simply better utilization of all those tools and elimination or reduction of others, we will make those judgments only after we know exactly what we have and how the personnel and equipment are being utilized presently.

But public safety goes far beyond just the police. We must review and evaluate the speed limits and traffic control devices and restrictions on every Hamilton roadway. From that we can determine where signage, signalization and, yes, speed bumps (or humps) should be installed for everyone's safety. Additionally, we can then determine which streets require more police presence and what times of the day and what days of the week that presence should be applied.

And, we must assure all the residents of our community that every nook and cranny of Hamilton is safe for both pedestrian and vehicular traffic and for personal and real property. If it requires a greater police presence at gathering places like malls, shopping centers, transportation venues and entertainment locales, then it is up to the municipal government to determine how that safety can be assured to every citizen of Hamilton. We must apply a policy of "zero tolerance" for anyone threatening either the person or property of anyone anywhere in our community.

Additionally, we will meet regularly with our dedicated fire commissioners and line officers to determine how our exceptional fire service can be improved both in efficiency and on the economic front. That must be an ongoing, continuous process as our fire service evolves from what was once a purely volunteer force into the present-day volunteer/paid combination service.

We must always be looking ahead and developing with our fire-fighting officials a master plan for the fire service this year, next year, five years from now and on into the future. Nothing remains the same and all services must be evaluated periodically for whatever improvements can be embraced.