My family and I came home from running an errand the other day and I realized that I had left the garage door open. My ten year old said to me, "That's OK, Dad. We are safe because bad things don't happen in Plano." As much as I would like to believe that, I know that crimes do occur within our city limits. In fact, many of the burglaries that occur are a result of negligence like leaving the garage door open or leaving the car unlocked with valuables in it. Nevertheless, that was a good observation by my brilliant daughter! I looked up the Plano Police Department Annual Report and it reinforced what my daughter intuitively sensed. Here is some of the interesting information I found.

Plano Police Department Tag Line - Professionalism, Integrity, and Progress

Safety being a key factor, Plano rated 13th in the top 90 "Best Small Cities To Live In." I will leave the debate as to whether a city of 255,000 plus people is "small" for a later edition! A key contributor to Plano's public safety is the Police Department.

• There are 569 employees in the department and more coming. That number will increase by 30 according to the 2007 budget. The focus is on hiring the best and the brightest.
• The Plano PD 2006 budget was over $46 million. 89% of that was related to personnel.
• The Chief of Police is Greg Rushin.
• During the past year, the department achieved one of the lowest crime rates in the state of Texas.
• Plano was ranked the 2nd safest in Texas and the 41st safest in the nation.
• Fatality crashes were down more than 43%.
• The average police response time for a priority call is a little over 5 minutes.
• According to a recent survey, 97% of Plano citizens feel safe.
• The Automated Red Light Camera Enforcement Program started in March 2006. Since then, the city has experienced a 8.5% decrease in red light crashes.