It is wonderful when taxpayers and citizens have the luxury of having police officers assigned to a variety of initiatives and taking on non-traditional roles such as youth leaders, educators and community coordinators. There is no question that such programs help to reduce crime and build a better relationship between the police and the public they serve.

Now is not the time for such luxuries, however, and S.C. Exec. Steve Levy is right in looking to replace two police officers as head of the Suffolk Police Athletic League. He wants to replace them with two retired police officers and anticipates saving the county's taxpayers approximately more than $400,000 a year by taking this action.

Suffolk, like communities throughout the country, are facing tough financial times, and it would be a flagrant violation of Levy's fiduciary responsibilities if he did not look at this possibility, as well as others, to save money in the police budget and get more cops on the street, which is the first line of defense. If and when things get better, the County can reallocate funds to these types of programs. This kind of flexible budgeting is the approach all of our public entities should adopt in order to be able to move from one financial environment to another in a responsible way.

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