(Memphis) Memphis Police Director Toney Armstrong said Wednesday that he is considering options the day after city council voted to cut 2.5 percent from MPD’s budget.
“When we identify those specific cuts and I’ve had the opportunity to sit down and brief the mayor on it I’ll make it public but we will look at everything,” said Armstrong.
Armstrong said he was thankful council didn’t cut police jobs. He assured the council he can still adequately protect the city.
“We will have to get creative with some of the things because we will not be able to hire at the rate that we wanted to. We will have to tighten our belts we will have to go back and do everything we can to make this work.”
Council members agreed to give Armstrong the freedom to make the cuts where he thinks it will have the smallest impact.
“And we believe that he can have that flexibility,” said councilman Harold Collins.
Meantime, Armstrong said the work has already started. And anything can be cut, including overtime that is used to staff the department’s statistically based crime fighting method, blue crush.
“Certainly overtime is something that is not off the table.”
