To the editor:

I am deeply disappointed that the majority of Lawrence voters rejected the proposal to fund a new police facility. At the same time, I would like to thank those who supported our police and the 48.3 percent who voted in favor of the measure. In the past, we have voted to support school funding, a major library renovation, and funding for the transit system, among other things. Yet we can’t support the men and women who place their lives and safety at risk for our sake each and every day.

Anyone who has seen our cramped, inefficient and ineffectual police facilities must marvel that crime prevention and investigation can occur at all under these decrepit conditions. Those who support better facilities for our police must find another solution to the problem. Calls for an efficiency study will do little or nothing to solve the problem of aging, scattered and nonfunctional facilities. The next step appears to be to ask the city commission to fund a new police facility through property taxes. We have a lot of work to do.