The First Selectman has removed police officers from 3 busy and chaotic intersections on Greenwich Avenue in his new budget.  These officers should be reinstated to the budget because:

1. Pedestrian safety. With three recent pedestrian deaths in the last few weeks this is very callous and not logical based on the notable uptick in pedestrian/car conflict.  

2.  Security.  Police officer presence surely lessens thieves on Greenwich Avenue while they have become rampant elsewhere in town.  It provides shoppers and shops peace of mind.    

3.  Cross-Avenue driving traffic.  As most pedestrian traffic follows Greenwich Avenue at a steady rate, cars looking to cross the Avenue at one of these intersections will have a much greater difficulty. As the stream of pedestrians is nearly constant it will be very difficult to consider both crosswalks they must cross through as well as follow the stop sign routine of cars coming down the Avenue without incident. This will culminate in increased traffic at intersections, danger to cars and pedestrians as well as frustration at each location.  

4.  Harm to Greenwich’s reputation.  A pedestrian death on Greenwich Ave would negatively impact business on a long term basis and would not lead to economic growth which we need.  

5.  Charm.  Greenwich needs to retain the iconic charm of the police officers on the Avenue.  Without the officers, the Avenue will be like any other road.   Next stop getting a mall like Stamford and Norwalk.

Return the police to their rightful place on the Avenue!