In the short time that I’ve been covering the City Council here in Saratoga Springs, it seems that there is never an ordinary council meeting. Out of all of them, tonight’s presentation on police overtime by Chief Ed Moore might take the cake.

The bottom line, as told by Moore, is that if the city does not hire additional officers, we will continue to incur overtime expenses in an effort to maintain minimum levels needed to keep the city safe. This is a point that was well taken by the crowd at the council meeting, and really, it’s an important point, and certainly a pertinent one for the chief of police to make to the council.

The odd bit came when, about halfway through the presentation Moore played a few minutes of a recording from Sept. 5, 2007, when Seth Dawson used a razor blade to slice Officer Adam Baker’s throat. The recording, which elicited a visible response from several members of the City Council and members of the audience, followed Baker’s attempt to apprehend the man who had left Four Winds, then the frantic call from a backup officer saying that Baker’s throat had been cut and calling for an ambulance. The recording continued as numerous other officers were called in to help secure the scene, the perpetrator, and Baker’s life.

In many ways, hearing the recording was similar to watching video of people jumping from the burning World Trade Center on 9/11/2001. Everyone in the audience knew what was coming as soon as the slide showing Four Winds went up on the screen. You knew it was going to be painful, and yet, like a car wreck on the Northway, you couldn’t close your ears, even as your stomach tightened and the voices calling for a medivac helicopter crackled into the council chamber.

Baker lived, and I think the whole city is grateful for that. Moore credited the quick actions of his fellow officers and other emergency services for saving their life.

Moore’s stated point in playing the audio clip was to illustrate how much manpower is required in an instance such as that, and how easily paying out overtime can become a necessity. He captured the audience’s attention during those few minutes of audio, and in doing so, I think he also brought home the point that police put their lives on the line in their daily work, and without them, the city would likely be a more dangerous place. It would have been a good note on which to end the presentation, unfortunately, the slides continued for another 90 minutes, by which time the point had long-since been forgotten.