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Pilot received contradictory messages just before collision / 7A

Clock at :00?
Terry Porter weighing limited career options
Sports/1C

JULY 9, 2002 METRO EDITION

TUESDAY

Natures way
San Antonians celebrate Nude Recreation Week
S.A. Life/1D

50
SERVING SOUTH TEXAS SINCE 1865

Study says SAPD understaffed

Police union commissioned analysis
BY KARISA KING
EXPRESS-NEWS STAFF WRITER

Police staffing

The San Antonio Police Department lacks more than 1,500 officers to be on par with other national cities with similar crime rates, a new study commissioned by police union officials shows. Of the 29 cities included in the analysis, San Antonio

ranks second to last for the number of police employees and officers compared to the size of the population. We need to acknowledge that a staffing problem exists once and for all, said Rene Rodriguez, president of the San Antonio Police Officers Association. Were hearing from a different source now that we have a problem.

Released last week to city leaders as they head into contract negotiations with the union later this month, the report portrays the department as an anemic police force that has failed to keep pace with the growing population over the past 10 years. Union officials hope the study will add momentum to their most persistent and con-

San Antonio has the lowest number of police officers per tentious claim that the de- 100,000 population among major Texas cities.* partments ranks are danger283.1 ously thin, as evidenced by fall255.7 ing arrest rates. 224.4 In March, the FBI rejected 185.8 the departments clearance 171.1 163.1 rates because they were too far below the national average. Houston Dallas Fort Worth Austin El Paso San Antonio But police administrators *Cities with a population of more than 500,000 and facing similar crime risks. dispute the study and contend
Source: Crime Control Research Corp.
EXPRESS-NEWS GRAPHIC

See STUDY/5A

FLOOD OF 2002

11 more counties declared disasters

Perry says damage costs could reach $1 billion.
D BY AMY DORSETT
EXPRESS-NEWS STAFF WRITER

KEVIN GEIL/STAFF

Bill Miller starts to remove debris that was caught in his home on Rio Drive in New Braunfels. He was cleaning up Monday from last weeks flooding. Miller

bought the property and built his home in 2001. He had only minor damage inside. While many cleaned up, some kept an eye on a storm brewing in the gulf.

Congressmen want area dams inspected

2 record-breaking floods in 4 years raise concerns.
D BY GARY MARTIN
EXPRESS-NEWS WASHINGTON BUREAU

WASHINGTON Texas lawmakers urged the Bush administration Monday to assess the integrity of South Texas dams and bridges that have withstood two record-breaking floods in four years. Last weeks storm, which dropped more than 30 inches of rain on portions

of South Texas, sending rivers cascading out of their banks and forcing the evacuation of more than 48,000 residents, also underscores the need for additional dams to be built, said Reps. Ciro Rodriguez and Lamar Smith. There is no doubt that after all is said and done, we need to ask the Corps of Engineers to assess the dams and bridges, said Rodriguez, D-San Antonio. Most of those bridges and dams go back to the Roosevelt days. We need to reinvest. See LAWMAKERS/5A

BAHRAM MARK SOBHANI/STAFF

As a sunny sky aided inspections in rain-swollen South Texas on Monday , the Federal Emergency Management Agency declared an additional 11 counties national disaster areas, boosting the tally to 24. Damage estimates are slowly trickling in, Farmers and and Gov Rick Perry ranchers are . said the flood damage reeling/1E could reach $1 billion Storms slow across the state. That freight/1E would be greater at least fiscally than Mosquitoes becoming a the October 1998 floodmenace/1B ing that killed 31 and caused almost $800 million in damage. This flood is going to have an impact for some time to come, said Perry , who was in San Antonio on Monday to tour the Woodlawn Lake area hit hard by flooding last week. Its going to be substantial. The 11 counties declared disaster areas Monday were Brown, Caldwell, Eastland, Frio, Goliad, Gonzales, Karnes, La Salle, Real, Taylor and Wilson. The designation means residents and businesses can qualify for federal aid. Perry requested Sunday that 17 counties be added to the list. More counties still could be added, FEMA spokesman David Passey said. Additional counties can be added on, particularly as floodwaters proceed

Gov. Rick Perry talks to Roman and Hilda Mendoza at their home. Perry was See 11 MORE/4A touring flood damage in the Woodlawn Lake area Monday.

Texas flunks election reform

NAACP survey reveals most states havent improved much.
D BY DEBORAH KONG
ASSOCIATED PRESS

Judge freezes resort project

Restraining order closes loophole in City Charter to block a vote.
D BY MARO ROBBINS
EXPRESS-NEWS STAFF WRITER

HOUSTON An NAACP report inspired by the 2000 presidential election, when thousands of minority voters ballots didnt count, has found that most states have made little progress in reforming their

election systems. Six states received failing grades in an NAACP report released Monday , though some officials MFUME immediately disputed the findings. The states that received an F were Delaware, North Dakota, Pennsylvania, Tennessee, Texas and Vermont. Florida, where the results of the 2000 presidential race remained in dispute for

more than a month, got a D. It was disappointing to look at the grades of some of the states knowing they could be better, NAACP President Kweisi Mfume said. Many states have been waiting in vain for the federal government to make the first move on election reform, he noted during a news conference at the annual convention of the National Association for the Advancement of Colored People. See TEXAS/6A
Business Classifieds Comics 1E 1F 6D

A judge issued an order Monday keeping the door open for local voters to decide whether the city subsidizes a luxurious tourist attraction over the environmentally sensitive Edwards Aquifer recharge zone.
Deaths Editorials Metro/State 4B 6B 1B Movies Puzzles S.A. Life

U.S. District Judge Fred Bierys ruling VILLAGE temporarily forD E BAT E bids city officials from moving forward with the contentious proposal to create a tax-subsidized golf resort over land that is crucial to the citys water supply . The restraining order freezes the PGA Village project at least until Wednesday when the City ,

PG A

Council is scheduled to accept the PGA referendum petitions. Once thats done, the council must either rescind its support of the development or let its fate be settled by a public referendum. Buffeted by months of ardent debate, two rounds of laborious petitioning and, so far, one civil lawsuit, the project has polarized groups focused on economic development, the environment and, most recently mi, nority voting rights. See JUDGE/5A
137th year, No. 279, 52 pages. Entire contents copyright 2002, San Antonio Express-News. This newspaper is recyclable.

Todays Weather
Chance of storms High 95, Low 74 Full weather report, Page 8C

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P U B D A T E 07-09-02 O P E R A T O R CCI

D A T E 07/08/02

T I M E 23:57