(CBS News)

As cities and towns across the country trim their budgets, some of them can't even afford some basics anymore - basics such as law enforcement.

The small east Texas city of Alto, population 1,200, is one such place, reports CBS News correspondent Don Teague.

And now, crime is on the rise.

No one knows that better than Charles Barron.

He has plenty of time now to care for his cattle.

That's because Barron is Alto's police chief, and no longer has a police department to run.

The patrol cars are locked in an impound lot. The police station is locked, except when Barron stops in to check the mail.

And all five police officers, including Barron, are unemployed, after the city council cut the police budget to zero.

"They put a bulls-eye target on law enforcement -- police department -- and police department only," he tells CBS News.

The council furloughed the police department for at least six months to make up for a $185,000 budget deficit.

Barron says, "There have been accusations that the police department is not generating enough revenue. Well, police departments are not revenue generators."

Now, county sheriff's deputies must handle calls in Alto.

But that means response times that were less than 3 minutes from police are now up to 15 minutes from deputies spread thin over a 1,000 square mile county.

"When you're sitting there needing help, it's a lifetime," says Cherokee County Sheriff James Campbell, who's among those who think chopping the police department was a bad idea.

"In the last 24 hours," Campbell says, "we've answered 18 calls in the county; seven of them were in Alto."

In fact, Teague notes, Alto has been experiencing a crime spree, including an attempted bank robbery last month and a rash of burglaries.

Greg Duplichain's construction company was hit Thursday night. It's located -- across the street from the now vacant police department.

"If people know you don't have a police force," Duplichain says, "I believe that some people will take advantage of it."

Alto resident Michelle Blackmen says, "I work at a business here in town and, at any time, someone can come in and rob it."

CBS News tried to interview members of the city council on-camera. They declined, though one said, "When you can't make payroll, you have to make cuts."

Barron says he just hopes to get back to his real job, protecting the people of Alto. "That's my life," he says. ... I miss it."

Alto residents are sending around a petition to try to get their police force back.

And Alto isn't the only municipality to cut law enforcement from its budget. Places from Nazareth, Pa. to Half Moon Bay, Calif. have made similar cost-cutting moves.

Originally Posted by JamesGw (Post 18261310) Lol @ police not generating enough revenue. What is this crap?

Originally Posted by JamesGw (Post 18261310) Lol @ police not generating enough revenue. What is this crap?

Originally Posted by nico-t (Post 18261362) I dont know how it is in the US, but here in holland that is their main objective. The only thing the cops do around here is herass the tax payers with writing as much tickets as possible for shitty little things. That's why the cops here don't get any respect from anyone.

Originally Posted by MaDalton (Post 18261339) who needs police if everyone is armed anyways? welcome to the 19th century ;)

Originally Posted by MaDalton (Post 18261339) who needs police if everyone is armed anyways? welcome to the 19th century ;)

Originally Posted by MaDalton (Post 18261339) who needs police if everyone is armed anyways? welcome to the 19th century ;)

Originally Posted by Kiopa_Matt (Post 18261575) I was in about a 300 person town / village once where there was no police. Out in Newfoundland. Nice, peaceful little town actually. :) Would never want to live there though. Needed a computer store for something, and asked where the closest one was. The response was, "well, there's one 250kms that way, and another 300kms that way".

When a small town police station is threatened with shutting down because of too little crime, the police realise that something has to be done...

Originally Posted by brassmonkey (Post 18261254) And Alto isn't the only municipality to cut law enforcement from its budget. Places from Nazareth, Pa. to Half Moon Bay, Calif. have made similar cost-cutting moves.[/LEFT]

Originally Posted by ToBad (Post 18261273) That's what can happen when you live in a country where nobody wants to pay taxes

Originally Posted by ToBad (Post 18261273) That's what can happen when you live in a country where nobody wants to pay taxes, and where you think it is a human right to have cheap gasoline, and start wars everywhere.

Originally Posted by MrMaxwell (Post 18262416) We are happy to pay taxes. We just are sick and fucking tired of being financially raped to god damned death. With over 200 taxes we pay resulting in over 80% of our income being raped from us, at least 80% of THAT stolen money is going to shit we would NEVER agree to pay for. Period.

Originally Posted by L-Pink (Post 18262420) Your percentage is way off but point taken. .

Originally Posted by Rochard (Post 18261533) The hometown I grew up at in had a population of 600 - and no police department. We were patrolled by the Sheriff or something similar, rarely had a need for law enforcement, and emergencies were handled by the fire department - which was an all volunteer fire department.

Originally Posted by officemike (Post 18261781) No cops? No problem! That town rpbably didn't need cops anyway, except maybe for a renegade cow or two every year. Now I bet all those state of the art, brand fucking new cop cares are getting better use parking at the impound lot. Gotta love the war on drugs and a thirty year buildup of law enforcement.

Originally Posted by MaDalton (Post 18261653) they should have watched KOPPS :winkwink: http://www.imdb.com/title/tt0339230/

Originally Posted by kane (Post 18262452) A lot of this is just small town politicians being dumb and holding personal grudges. A friend of mine is a cop in a small town and they recently were nearly closed down. They have 13 officers plus about 3-4 other staff for the police department. The city administrator said that because they weren't writing enough tickets that the police were responsible for the $165K deficit that the city was running this year. He claimed most of it was due to overtime and other unforeseen expenses like the fact that two of their police cars had to be replaced. He wanted to close the police department and contract out to the county which would cost about half as much. The locals were pretty pissed off. the reason they live in this town is because it has low crime and one reason for that is having its own police department that works proactively. At a city council meeting someone came forward and went through a list of every single person on the city payroll and asked the city administrator to explain what that person does and to justify why that person was more important to the city than the police. He got about halfway through the list and things got very ugly. It all led to a breakdown where the city administrator is stepping down and they are cleaning house because it appears there are a lot of people on the payroll who make good money and don't appear to do much of anything and he was protecting their jobs. It became known that the city administrator didn't like the police chief and was playing politics to get him out at any cost. It seems this kind of thing happens a lot. When people vote for lower taxes those in charge take away high profile things that effect them directly so that they will see the errors of their ways and later be okay when those taxes are increased again.

Originally Posted by PornoMonster (Post 18262440) Traveling gun sales man, should do well in that town.

Originally Posted by PornoMonster (Post 18262507) We need to clean house every town, city, government

Originally Posted by CDSmith (Post 18262620) http://i61.photobucket.com/albums/h7...u/Subyguns.jpg Free bumpersticker with every purchase.. http://cdn2.iofferphoto.com/img/item...355/g_gZgk.jpg

Originally Posted by CDSmith (Post 18262620) http://i61.photobucket.com/albums/h7...u/Subyguns.jpg Free bumpersticker with every purchase.. http://cdn2.iofferphoto.com/img/item...355/g_gZgk.jpg

Originally Posted by CDSmith (Post 18262620) http://i61.photobucket.com/albums/h7...u/Subyguns.jpg Free bumpersticker with every purchase.. http://cdn2.iofferphoto.com/img/item...355/g_gZgk.jpg

Originally Posted by IllTestYourGirls (Post 18262666) 5 cops in a town of 1200? Um that is way too many cops to begin with. No wonder the town is fucking broke. I wonder how much more money they are pissing away. I live in a town 10x that size and we only have 7 cops. You realize just to pay public employee pensions we would need to raise taxes an avg of $1400 per household, per year, every year, for the next 30 years. Some states are even worse off than that. I think NJ is well into the $2000+ per house hold. The whole system is broken and taxing more will not fix it. edit found the link: http://www.cnbc.com/id/43498037 But I guess this is what we get when we allow the bankers, wall street and big corps run our country while people cheer for more government involvement in their lives and taxes. :mad:

Originally Posted by IllTestYourGirls (Post 18262666) 5 cops in a town of 1200? Um that is way too many cops to begin with. No wonder the town is fucking broke. I wonder how much more money they are pissing away. I live in a town 10x that size and we only have 7 cops. You realize just to pay public employee pensions we would need to raise taxes an avg of $1400 per household, per year, every year, for the next 30 years. Some states are even worse off than that. I think NJ is well into the $2000+ per house hold. The whole system is broken and taxing more will not fix it. edit found the link: http://www.cnbc.com/id/43498037 But I guess this is what we get when we allow the bankers, wall street and big corps run our country while people cheer for more government involvement in their lives and taxes. :mad:

Originally Posted by IllTestYourGirls (Post 18262666) 5 cops in a town of 1200? Um that is way too many cops to begin with. No wonder the town is fucking broke. I wonder how much more money they are pissing away. I live in a town 10x that size and we only have 7 cops. You realize just to pay public employee pensions we would need to raise taxes an avg of $1400 per household, per year, every year, for the next 30 years. Some states are even worse off than that. I think NJ is well into the $2000+ per house hold. The whole system is broken and taxing more will not fix it. edit found the link: http://www.cnbc.com/id/43498037 But I guess this is what we get when we allow the bankers, wall street and big corps run our country while people cheer for more government involvement in their lives and taxes. :mad:

Originally Posted by Rochard (Post 18261533) The hometown I grew up at in had a population of 600 - and no police department. We were patrolled by the Sheriff or something similar, rarely had a need for law enforcement, and emergencies were handled by the fire department - which was an all volunteer fire department.

Originally Posted by kane (Post 18262684) You live in a town of 12,000 and they only have 7 cops? Your town probably gets extra coverage from country officers. With only 7 officers they would barely have enough people to cover every shift never mind people getting sick or taking vacations.

Originally Posted by MrMaxwell (Post 18262416) We are happy to pay taxes. We just are sick and fucking tired of being financially raped to god damned death. With over 200 taxes we pay resulting in over 80% of our income being raped from us, at least 80% of THAT stolen money is going to shit we would NEVER agree to pay for. Period.

Originally Posted by Coup (Post 18263026) I've never seen someone so upset that a couple of bored ass ticket happy local cops got the boot. terrified even. rofl what the fuck is the matter with you?

Originally Posted by brassmonkey (Post 18261254) And all five police officers, including Barron, are unemployed, after the city council cut the police budget to zero.