Let’s say that you own a little shop that is surrounded by a few homes. Your shop sells just about everything your neighbors might need. Your shop also has a few goodies – things that some people really want. Some folks near your shop might save up for years to buy these goodies and a few have the means to pop in on a regular basis and splurge a little.
Let’s say too, that a few months ago the entire neighborhood decided to pitch in to make sure your little shop had enough money to stay in business. Enough to fix the leaky roof, tuck point the exterior and pay for the heat and electricity. Those are some really nice neighbors!
Several months later, one of your neighbors comes in to your shop and asks to buy some soap. And as the shop keeper, you say, “We don’t have any soap. I know you chipped in some money so that I could keep my little shop open, but I don’t carry soap any longer. If you want soap, you should go somewhere else to buy it”.
A few days later, another neighbor comes into your shop and wants to buy a hammer and some nails. In the past your little shop has always carried these items, but you’ve decided to stop selling them.
“This little shop – to which you’ve offered money so that I can remain in business, no longer sells hammers or nails. If you’d like these items, you should go to another shop and buy them,” you tell your customer.
Sounds a little bit odd, doesn’t it? What kind of shop owner would expect to stay in business under these circumstances? First, the neighbors all chipped in to help out this shop owner, and then the shop owner decides to stop selling the very items that the neighbors need and want. Worst of all – especially for the financial well being of this little shop, the owner suggests that the customers start buying what they want somewhere else. It just doesn’t sound like a very solid business model.
Well, it seems that the Columbus police are doing the same thing. Rather than responding to the needs of their neighbors, the very neighbors that decided to chip in and pay to keep their business up and running, the Columbus police have begun suggesting that their neighbors live somewhere else. This, according to a recent article in the Columbus Dispatch, is taking place in various Columbus neighborhoods.
These suggestions are not a very wise business model. After all, if the neighbors take this advice, there will be even less money available for the Columbus police department.
A better business model would be to make the neighborhoods safe and attractive so that other people would be willing to move in and increase the amount of money that the police department could earn through tax generation.