OMAHA, Neb. (KMTV) — Recently, a group of people banded together to recall Omaha Mayor Jean Stothert. They cited things like potholes, taxes, public safety, and more. Today, Omaha's Fire and Police Departments (OFD and OPD) issued a joint-statement in response to the upcoming effort and public safety in Omaha.
In the release, the departments responded to accusations of what they called "mismanagement and mistreatment of the Omaha police and fire departments" by the group.
They said, "As Chiefs of the departments, we see Mayor Stothert's commitment to public safety. She has been tremendously supportive in the allocation of resources to our departments."
OFD and OPD also shared some bullet-points on the current state of crime and first response efforts in Omaha to support their statement:
- Lowest per capita homicides in 20 years
- Lowest number of shootings over the last several years
- 98 additional budgeted police officers
- New 5th Police Precinct
- Merged police crime laboratory with Nebraska Medicine
- Police SUV patrol fleet
- Homicide clearance rates - one of the highest in the country
- Police Community Relations and Partnerships
- New Fire Station 31
- 20 additional budgeted firefighters
- New state of the art Fire Apparatus and Ambulances
- New Fire Station Alerting System to enhance service delivery to community
- Reinstated two fire apparatus back into service after a long hiatus of not being in service
- Highest Insurance Services Offices (ISO) rating achievable
The recall group is holding a rally later this month to begin collecting signatures. They would need to collect at least 35,000 within a 30 day period.
You can read Mayor Stothert's reply to the campaign here: https://www.3newsnow.com/news/local-news/mayor-jean-stothert-releases-statement-in-reply-to-recall
